The Lone Maurader
by horrorball
Summary: Chaos develops in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the infamous Marauders meet their match.  SiriusOC/LilyJames
1. Chapter 1

_**"Maybe I can just morph into a house... and live in myself? Ugh no I wouldn't be very comfortable with that...an umbrella? It is rather rainy...but I could be picked up by a random stranger...even worse...the wind...then be stuck up a tree somewhere...NO!"**_

Zoe Hitzig stood under a lamp post, debating what to do now.

_"You are no daughter of mine!"_

_"Get out, Zoe...just get out..."_

_"Zoe, we'll keep in touch. No matter what, we will not be forced apart..."  
_

She couldn't help but smile at that last memory of her older brother consoling her. After the very heated debate, she had packed everything she could into her trunk and stormed off outside. The last thing she did was hug her brother and slam the door behind her.

It began raining a bit harder and the wind was picking up speed. It was blowing her long brown hair around, whipping her in the face every once in a while.

She let out a sigh and decided to start walking. But once she stepped foot on the road, two huge lights appeared right next to her. She let out a little squeal and realized it was a rather large bus. A purple triple decker bus.

Zoe stepped back onto the sidewalk in a daze. What was it doing HERE? In the middle of Godric's Hollow?

"You nearly ran me over!" Zoe yelled at the person stepping out of the bus.

"Well, luckily Ernie has his glasses on tonight, dontcha Ern?" a young man yelled at someone inside the bus. He looked to be about 20 and had large protruding ears with a very pimply face. He was tall and very thin.

"Who are you?" Zoe put her hand into her purse stealthily, clutching at her wand.

"I am Samuel Shunpike, that's my mate Ernie in there and this ol' beaut," he patted the side of the bus, "is the Knight Bus."

He made some sort of bow and took ahold of her luggage, "Make yourself at home there."

Zoe stepped into the vehicle and saw the person Samuel had talked to earlier. The man, Ernie, seemed to be in his late 40's with very thick glasses that made him resemble an owl.

"ello there!" he waved at her and grinned, "rainy night isn't it?"

Samuel had dragged her trunk inside, "Well then why don't we get you situated. Your bed is the one at the very end."

"Before I go any further, what exactly is the Knight Bus?" Zoe looked around at what looked like a hotel on wheels.

"The knight bus, my fair lady, helps those wizards in need," Samuel turned to Ernie, "All right Ern, let's get going then."

The bus gave a big jolt forward and Zoe had found herself stumbling backwards. There was nothing to hold onto. She hadn't noticed before but there were people sleeping in some of the beds that were scattering around.

_**"Sleeping? These people must be mad!" **_she thought to herself as she tried to make her way to the last bed without falling. Unfortunately, she was clumsy enough as it was and now there was a moving floor underneath her.

She finally managed to reach her bed. She sat down at the edge and looked at the window looking at the trail behind. The bus was moving rather fast and was dodging every object in its path flawlessly.

"So, where shall we drop you off?" Samuel eased his way through the beds and stood in front of her.

"Um..." she tried to think where she could go...somewhere she'd be welcome..."Mill Town!"

"MILL TOWN, ERNIE!" Samuel shouted to the driver. He walked back to the front, nearly being hit by a rolling bed.

The ride was rather short. She had finally gotten the hang of the movements when Samuel waved her forward.

"Here we are!" Samuel grabbed her luggage from her and walked out onto the street, "That'll be eleven sickles."

Zoe rummaged through her purse and handed the eleven sickles to Samuel, "Thanks for the lift."

She grabbed ahold of the handle on her trunk and wheeled it towards a pleasant looking home. She looked back towards the street and saw the Knight Bus had already left. As she was about to knock on the door, the door burst open.

"What happened?" a red haired girl asked loudly.

"Wha-how-uhhhhh..." Zoe still had her hand made into a fist in front of her.

"Craig called a few minutes ago," her friend's green eyes looked Zoe up and down, probably checking to see if she'd been cursed or anything.

"We had a phone?" Zoe put down her fist, "Can I come in? It's kinda raining..."

"Sure! Sorry I'm still in a bit of shock," the girl motioned Zoe in and closed the door behind her, "I've already let my mum and dad know you would be here. They're out right now, though. They're quite pleased. They also added that during the holidays you can come with us to the United States. We're going on vacation to Florida."

"That'd be amazing!" she smiled and added,"So, Lily, what would you like to know about the events tonight?" she walked over to the living room and sat down on a couch.

"Thinking about it now, I can only guess that they found out about you joining the Order and that's why they did what they did. And only a week before we go off to school again! THE NERVE!" Lily took a seat next to Zoe.

"Yeah they did...but hey they were going to find out about it sooner or later. I still say I could have gotten away with it for another year," Zoe sighed and threw her head back.

"I doubt it. Your sneaking abilities are not the best in the world, Zoo," Lily nudged Zoe with her elbow, "Want something to drink?"

"Yes please! I worked up a thirst with all the screaming." chuckled Zoe as she looked around, "Where's Toony?"

"Petunia is not rather fond of that nickname, Zoe. She's with her friends right now at the mall or something. She never tells me anything," Lily stood up and walked into the kitchen with Zoe trailing behind her.

"What's this?" Zoe grabbed a piece of parchment that was laying on the counter.

"Don't!" Lily lunged towards Zoe but she was too slow.

"I love you. Sincerely, James," Zoe read aloud, "That's it?" She turned it over to see if there was anything else.

Lily snatched it out of her hands and stuffed it into her jeans pocket, "It's very romantic!"

"I guess. Black must have wasted James' ink writing back to his adoring fans," Zoe sneered, "Anyways, still not talking to Severus?"

Lily grabbed some glasses and set them down on the counter where Zoe was fidgeting with a napkin, "No. I'm never speaking to him again."

She poured them some water and sighed, "He's tried apologizing but he made his choice when he let those awful words escape his stupid mouth."

"Isn't it kinda hard to avoid him though. He lives very close by," Zoe took a sip.

"Yeah but I don't really go out much anyway so I never really see him."

"That's good," Zoe gulped the water down.

"Jeez! Were you that thirsty?" Lily laughed.

"Yes, actually," Zoe set her glass down and laughed as well, "The water even tastes better away from my house ya know?"

They chatted and chatted about the latest gossip and James and the news...and James.

Zoe let out a yawn, "I'm really tired."

"Let me show you to your room. I decorated in a bit of a hurry after I got off the phone with Craig. Thank God for magic!"

Lily lead her into the basement and switched on the light. The room WAS the entire basement. The walls were painted green as they always had been but now there were posters of her favorite muggle bands and quidditch teams posted all over.

"It's rather impressive! I love it!" Zoe pushed her luggage into an empty corner and surveyed the room, her big brown eyes looking straight at the comfy bed, "Ugh...it looks like heaven."

She threw herself on it, "It feels like it too!" she closed her eyes and didn't open them.

Zoe didn't know when Lily had left. She didn't know when exactly it was that she had fallen asleep. All she knew was that it was very comfortable and peaceful where she was. Not a problem in the world. The world was perfect once more.


	2. Chapter 2

"Zoe!" a distant voice called, "ZOE!"

"Ugggh..." she turned over and rubbed her eyes open, "Is it tomorrow already?"

"It's today!" the person had been Lily. She was now turning on the lights.

"Then I can sleep until it's tomorrow, now off with youuuuu..." Zoe groaned and hid under the covers.

"No bloody way, Zoe Hitzig. Today is Diagon Alley day. We have to start getting our books, robes," she rambled on as she now began flickering the lights on and off.

"Okay! Okay! I'm getting up! This is no way to treat the youngest member of the Order..." she unfurled herself out of the blankets and stretched as she stood up. She noticed a couple of the quidditch team members on the walls were missing from their posters.

WHAM! A pair of socks made their way across the room and onto Zoe's face. "Mum's preparing breakfast, dad's gone to work, and Petunia is halfway through her meal," Lily shoved some clothes at Zoe and walked up the stairs, "If your food gets cold I will not reheat it for you!"

"Yes you will, Lily!" Zoe shouted behind her as she fumbled with the clothes. She slid into her jeans and t-shirt, put on some sneakers and went up the stairs taking two at a time.

"Oh! Good morning, Zoe!" Mrs. Evans walked over to Zoe and gave her a great big hug, "We're so glad to have you here!" She ended the hug and went back to the stove, "I'll be dropping you three off after you empty your plates!"

Petunia spit out her orange juice. Lily and Zoe turned to look at her, unaware that she'd been sitting at the table. The juice had splattered on parts of the thin girl's blonde hair and on the table. Almost immediately, she stood up clutching a napkin to her face and marched off. Most likely to rinse the juice off.

"Oh for heaven's sake, Petunia," Mrs. Evans muttered as she grabbed a napkin and started wiping down the table. After the table was clean once again, she rushed over to the stove and set the food down onto the remaning two girls' plates and placed some toast in the middle of the table.

"It looks delicious Mrs. Evans," Zoe looked down onto the egg and pancake filled dish, "Thank you very much!"

"No need to thank me, Zoe, dear, " she kissed the top of Lily and Zoe's head, "Now eat before it gets cold. I'm going to go see how your sister is doing."

"Is Toony going with us to Diagon Alley?" Zoe asked as she stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth.

"Oh no," Lily answered, "My mum's dropping her off at her school first then taking us to the Leaky Cauldron. She told us last night. Toony's still a bit upset hence the orange juice fountain show."

"muft refmlly hatmfe mashic," Zoe said through a moutful of food.

Lily burst out in laughter, "Were they starving you at the Hitzig's?" 

Zoe nodded yes and swallowed, "I'm a growing girl!"

Lily rolled her green eyes, "Oh yes I can tell you're not five foot anymore...you're now 5'1," she said sarcastically and added, "I'd forgotten to mention also that James will be meeting us."

"Oh lovely romantic handsome James," Zoe pretended to swoon, "The man who has completely 'clean-sweeped' you off your feet."

"Be quiet!" Lily began turning a light shade of pink, "Anyways, he's bringing along Sirius as well." 

"Best friends forever," chuckled Zoe, "Just like us, eh, Lil?"

"At least until I'm fed up with you," laughed Lily.

"Why's Sirius going with James? I'd think he'd be in the Black household drawing up some plans to terrorize the first years."

"Because...umm...Sirius isn't like the rest of his family...they sort of...disowned him last year..."

"Ah," comprehension dawned on Zoe, "Like me."

"Not necessarily," Lily furrowed her brows, "You were kicked out for the Order. Which still eludes me, might I add. He was kicked out because his family is a bunch of stupid gits. He's in the process of getting his own place, James says."

"My family are stupid gits also. Except Craig of course...even then he surprises me..."

"Zoe, you never actually told me how it is that they allowed a 16 year old into the Order. You had barely finished your 6th year," Lily sipped on her juice a little bit and looked shyly at Zoe.

Zoe set down her fork and knife and looked seriously at her, "I can't tell you. I swore not to say anything about it."

Lily nodded and looked disappointedly down at her breakfast.

"Buuuut...if you figure it out yourself I won't be breaking my promise now will I? Nathaniel and Isadora Hitzig like to eat...um...skulls and crossbones. They'd have their...erm...skulls and crossbones dinner parties at our house. I mentioned this to Dumbledore last school year and after some delibiration the Order decided I'd be very helpful. Besides, I'm a metamorphmagus and I could sometimes just turn into one of the guests and...you know...I wouldn't eat skulls and crossbones though, haha."

Lily looked confused but then thought about it for a minute and understood.

"Craig's also in it since he works in the Ministry."

They finished eating and cleaned up the kitchen. Mrs. Evans bustled into the kitchen with a glum looking Petunia following.

"Now girls, get your purses and let's get going. There's lots to do today!"

Lily and Zoe ran to their rooms and got their bags. They met up at the front of the house and sat down inside the Evans' car. The ride was rather awkward and quiet as they made their way to Petunia's high school first. As soon as Petunia left the car, they began chatting away.

"Have a good sleep, Zoe?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"The best I've had in ages, honestly."

"Did they feed you at home? You're all skin and bones! No matter, though. By the time you leave to school you'll be nice and plump."

Lily and Zoe stifled a laugh. Mrs. Evans dropped them off at the Leaky Cauldron and sped off to run another errand. They went through the grimy looking bar and went out to the back.

"You remember which bricks they were?" Zoe took out her wand and scratched her head with it.

"I think it was this one, this one and,,,,,this one?" she hit three bricks with her own wand and the wall immediately formed an archway in which they passed.

Diagon Alley looked as magical as it actually was. There were students everywhere. Most likely getting ready for school as well. Some store owners were waiting outside their shops, beckoning people to go inside to take a look at their wares.

Lily squealed, "There he is! How do I look? Is my hair all right?"

Zoe looked towards Ollivander's wand shop and saw James and Sirius walking towards them, "Your hair looks a lot better than his, I'll tell you that much. He looks like he's barely gotten out of bed."

The two tall men stopped in front of them. James' black hair was sticking up in different directions, his hazel brown eyes beaming at Lily. Sirius looked a lot happier than he had before. Surely because he had been freed from the Black household. He had let his hair grow up to his shoulders, Zoe observed. His grey eyes met Zoe's honey brown ones, they both quickly looked away towards James and Lily. James had taken Lily into his arms and spun her around, ending their greeting with a kiss. Zoe and Sirius looked at them in disgust.

"You could have put someone's eye out," Sirius sneered.

Lily was as red as her hair while James had the biggest smile plastered on his face.

"Hey there Zoe," James hugged her, "How's life?"

"Peaceful as you may have already heard. But now that you two have shown up I might just have to rethink my response," Zoe smiled at James then glared at Sirius, "How about you lot?"

Sirius looked at James and then back at Zoe, "Adventurous, did you know that Elvendork is a unisex name?"

James and Sirius laughed for a good 5 minutes. Lily and Zoe looked at each other, thinking they'd lost their minds.

"Should...we get going then...?" Lily asked.

"Sure! Lead the way, Head girl!" James put his arm around Lily and walked in front of Zoe and Sirius.

"Sirius, are we out of dung bombs? I'm not sure if we used the last ones last week. I'd hate to start off the year without them."

"I've got some if you'd like," Zoe added.

Lily, Sirius, and James looked at her.

"Um, Craig gave them to me for my birthday," she muttered.

"I don't think it's very wise to still be doing your pranks being Head Boy and all James," Lily said.

James scoffed, "That just makes it easier, love."

Sirius poked Zoe on the ribs as they made their way into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. It was quite busy inside. Their school lists had asked them to bring dress robes and Lily had made it quite clear that they would be going here first in order to get some decent ones before they were gone.

"What?" Zoe looked at Sirius.

"You still mad about the 'incident'?" Sirius lowered his voice to a whisper and gave her a crooked smile.

Zoe remembered what had happened the previous year at Hogwarts.

_"Sirius Black I will murder you!" Zoe lunged at Sirius. They both fell to the ground._

_Sirius was trying desperately to get away while he laughed so hard tears were running down his face. Zoe was punching and slapping at any part of Sirius with a fury. Their fight echoed through the empty classroom they were in. _

_"Hand...it...over!" Zoe said through clenched teeth as she tried to wrench something out of Sirius' grasp._

_"If you're trying to hurt me, you're really not doing a very good job! You're very small!"_

_Zoe gave up, she was tired. She rolled off of Sirius and panted, "You are a huge git."_

_Sirius was still laying down on the floor clutching at his sides, "Oh come now Zoe it's not so bad. You could have been shagging him when I took the picture."_

_Zoe made one last effort to hurt Sirius. She swung her fist, not knowing where it would hit him and heard a howl of pain. Sirius let go of the photograph Zoe had been fighting him for and rolled onto his side and grabbed his 'family jewels'. Now it was Zoe's turn to laugh. She grabbed the picture and tore it apart._

_"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," groaned Sirius, "I still have another hidden in the common room."_

Zoe came back to reality and sighed, "You didn't hide the picture in the common room...you made posters and put them up."

Sirius let out a small laugh, "Oh come on, it was all in good fun! The posters came down and he wasn't even in the picture much. All you could see was his ear and hair!"

"I forgive you, Sirius," she looked directly into his eyes and smiled wryly, "I really do." 


	3. Chapter 3

_Zoo's got a boyfriend? _

_I heard it's a really ugly guy...probably the best she could get._

_Hitzig probably just paid him off._

"I was tormented and made a fool of, but I still forgive you," Zoe nodded, "I can take a joke."

Sirius looked at her awestruck. He'd always been punched or told off by people he'd played a cruel prank on. Why was she forgiving him?

He looked at her suspiciously, "All right...ahem, where have those two gone to?"

"HEY! OVER HERE!" James motioned to them on the other side of the store.

Lily seemed to be hiding something behind her back, her eyes were flashing with glee.

"I snatched these two right under Narcissa's fake nose!" she whispered, loud enough for Zoe and the guys to hear.

Sirius looked around the store and glared towards the spot where a very thin blonde woman was standing. She matched the whiteness of the walls, "She must be here with Lucius."

"Well let me see them!" Zoe chirped.

Lily first brought forth a very sparkly green dress. It resembled a toga except that the top had green jewels and the bottom was very flowy with a slit.

"It's beautiful! Oh Lily the emerald green will bring out your eyes like mad!" Zoe squealed.

James and Sirius looked at each other and eased their way towards the men's section.

"And this one's for you!" Lily brought out the other one.

"Well...it's...different?" Zoe looked at the ugly maroon dress Lily was holding, her smile fading.

"What's wrong with it?" Lily sighed, she had noticed the look of disgust on Zoe's face start to form.

"First off," Zoe grabbed the dress and put it in front of her, "It's about ten sizes too big. I kind of lack the...you know...hoohoo's. It looks like it used to be red but it was in some sort of horrible washing accident. Don't even get me started on the ruffles!"

"OKAY OKAY! I get it! To be honest, your arse would fit in it perfectly," Lily mumbled the last part.

"Narcissa wouldn't have picked this, who was she with...," she looked towards Narcissa and saw a pudgy girl of their age talking to her, "Ugh you were giving me a dress that Penelope Parkinson wanted to wear?"

Lily laughed nervously, "I didn't see who it was..."

They burst out laughing and continued the search for a dress, not paying attention to what James and Sirius were doing.

"Oy! Look who's out there!" Sirius prodded James on the shoulder and pointed outside the shop's window.

A greasy haired boy was walking rather shadily towards Knockturn Alley.

"Should we...?" Sirius was interrupted.

"No way, mate. Lily would murder me," James looked around the store, "She'd think I got bored and never hear the end of it."

Sirius scoffed, "What would he be doing in Knockturn Alley?"

"We'll never know, now come on," James pulled Sirius away from the window, "We have some choosing to do."

"Where has your sense of adventure gone?" Sirius looked at the racks of clothing around and pulled a black suit out along with some pants, "I'm done."

"What are you going to wear underneath? Your Weird Sisters t-shirt?"

"It's not that difficult to find a shirt," Sirius pulled a red dress shirt from another rack, "See?"

"Red? Thought you'd be more of a black shirt kinda man," James picked out his dress clothes the same way Sirius had.

"Are you sure it's not too much? I don't want to look like more of a weirdo," Zoe's voice grew closer.

The girls were approaching them with bags in their hands.

Lily looked at the clothes James was holding, "That looks really good, James!"

Sirius and James chuckled and made their way to the registers.

"What did Sirius want with you?" Lily asked.

"Oh he just wanted to apologize for last year's posters."

"Soooo...are you ever going to tell me who he caught you snogging? Or how he caught you? I'm your best friend and that entitles me to every piece of embarrassing information you have about yourself!"

Zoe looked around, "I'll tell you when we get back to your house. Don't want any eavesdroppers."

Sirius and James came back with their shopping bags.

"What's next?" James grabbed ahold of Lily's hand.

"Flourish and Blotts. We only need a couple of books from there," replied Lily.

They walked to the bookstore through the crowds, every once in a while stopping to greet someone they knew. Once in the store, Lily and James went their own way while Sirius stood next to Zoe reading aloud their lists, comparing them.

"Aha, well I'll just follow you then, Hitzig. Turns out most our classes are the same...except Advanced Transfiguration...why are you taking that class anyway?" Sirius looked away from the lists, Zoe had started to walk away.

He followed, "Aren't you a metamorpha...thingy?"

Zoe snatched her list from his hand, "Metamorphmagus. And it makes it that much easier."

She turned her long hair short as Sirius shook his head, "You're an underachiever."

"Ahem, underachiever? I got straight O's, Mr. Black. You?" she waited for an answer.

"Well I got loads of those during my summer break..." Sirius muttered.

"You're a pig!" Zoe smacked him away.

Sirius blocked her, "I'm sorry, you weren't meant to hear that."

"Ugh, you're so...so..." Zoe stammered trying to not laugh.

"So amazingly divine? Amusing? Dare I say," Sirius winked at her, "Handsome?"

"So frustrating! Why are you following me anyway? Go seek your own books!" she smiled, she couldn't help it. Sirius was looking at her with puppy dog eyes. Usually she wouldn't go for it, but it was nice to be annoyed by him after all the drama that had occured with her family.

Sirius put an arm over her and took her list again, "First order of business, The Standard Book of Spells Grade 7!...Well what are you waiting for? Lead the way!"

It wasn't easy to find the books, not because the books were hard to find, but because Sirius would veer them away to a different path when he would see an ex-girlfriend nearby.

"This would be so much easier if you left things on good terms you know?" Zoe peeked from behind a bookshelf to see if one of the exes was still there, "All gone."

"Nah, I decided it was nicer to just never speak to them again. What?" Sirius looked at Zoe's face of revulsion, "I wasn't going to be like 'Hey, Flora I find you incredibly boring and uninteresting. It's over. By the way, let's still be pals,' I chose to be a gentleman."

Zoe chuckled, "Did she have a sister named Fauna?"

"No, why?"

"Just checking. Aha here's the last one," She held up a book titled How to make your Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests not as Nasty.

Sirius scoffed, "That's not even on the list. Now you're becoming an overachiever. Are you trying to impress me?"

It was Zoe's turn to scoff, "Get over yourself, Black."

He ignored her, "Cause you've already impressed me. You actually managed to kiss someone as repulsive as-"

A book found its way to Sirius' face with a loud smack.

"Shut up! I haven't told Lily yet!" Zoe was a deep shade of pink. She looked around to see if anyone had been close enough to hear.

Sirius rubbed his nose, "THAT was shocking. Didn't even see it coming."

They paid for their books and went outside the store. They had seen James and Lily not too behind in line so they decided to wait for them.

"Don't worry, I haven't told a soul. Wouldn't help your reputation much," Sirius smiled.

"What reputation is that?" Zoe scowled.

"The silent bookworm who spends all her time in the library. Only time you appear is during meals. And even then you disappear right after. People think you're plotting to get rid of half bloods."

"I'm nothing like my parents and my best friend is Lily. People are dumb if they think that I'm trying to keep the school 'pure'," Zoe's scowl faded, "In addition to that, I find your stalking flattering, Padfoot, but you're not my type."

"Padfoot?" Sirius' brows furrowed.

Zoe was about to say something when James and Lily bustled out of the store.

"Honestly! People are too pushy for their own good!" Lily muttered under her breath.

They didn't do much more shopping since they already had most of their supplies from their previous years. Sirius had become rather quiet after the conversation in front of Flourish and Blotts. Before parting ways, James and Lily went into Sugarplum's Sweet Shop to get some treats.

Zoe leaned on the wall of the shop and rummaged through her purse, "I believe these are yours."

She handed him a wand, a wallet, and a piece of parchment.

"How did you get this?" Sirius looked over his possessions.

"You trusted me too easily. Putting your arm over me and such," she smiled mischievously.

Sirius let out what seemed to be a mixture of a laugh and cough, "You took advantage of my innocence."

He tapped his head with the wand when suddenly a loud pop came from it. A strange pink mist encircled his head.

"Oh so sorry," Zoe pretended to look innocent, "I must have given you the wrong one. Here's yours."

She took out his real wand and put it in his free hand.

Sirius didn't know what to say so he just muttered, "Thanks."

Zoe gave him a small curtsy, "My pleasure."

The mist settled and Sirius' hair was now bright pink. A group of people passed by pointing and whispering amongst each other.

"When will it go away?" He tried looking at one of his long strands of hair to see the damage.

Before she could answer, James came out of the shop and dropped a bag of chocolates as he saw the pink hair on SIrius' head. Lily wasn't paying attention and walked into his back.

"James!" Lily picked up his dropped bag, "What's going on?"

Her mouth dropped open. They both started laughing hysterically.

"It's a good color on you, Sirius. Brings out the pink on your cheeks," James said.

"Oh don't worry," Zoe walked towards him and patted his head, "It's not permanent. It's like disappearing ink. Except that it takes less than a month to wear off."

"You got me good, Hitzig," Sirius said in a whisper so only she could hear, "Now I am rather impressed."

Zoe shook her head, "Consider ourselves even. Shall we get going then?"

Mrs. Evans was waiting for them by the entrance of The Leaky Cauldron. James and Lily pecked each other on the cheek. Zoe and Lily waved goodbye to the two guys and got into the car.

"Well, that boy is...different," Mrs. Evans commented on SIrius.

"That's James' best friend, mum," Lily said.

"Oh well, maybe next time we see James he'll have blue hair to match," she chuckled.

They picked up Petunia from school and arrived at home where Lily's dad was mowing the lawn. As soon as Mrs. Evans parked the car, Petunia walked as fast as she could to her room. Mr. Evans stopped what he was doing and greeted them.

"Claire, that daughter of ours needs to learn some manners," he said to his wife as he hugged her.

"Oh Harold, if you only knew what she did this morning," Mrs. Evans replied.

They were a very handsome couple. Mrs. Evans hair was strawberry blonde, she wasn't thin but she wasn't big, and she was short. Mr. Evans was tall, blonde, and had very kind green eyes.

He went on to hug Zoe, "It's a pleasure having you in our home, Zoe. Try to get yourselves into mischief while you're here. I'm afraid that the books you two are always reading are going to swallow you whole one day."

"I'll try to make trouble our middle names, Mr. Evans."

"Go on and get inside, girls. I'm going to help your father do this. I've left some snacks on the kitchen counter."

Lily and Zoe went inside and into the basement first.

"Accio trunk!" Zoe motioned her wand to her nearby trunk and stuffed her purchases inside.

"Is that really necessary? It was just a few inches away."

"I'm able to use magic now outside of school so," she stuck her tongue out at Lily.

"We're home and you said you'd tell me," Lily sat down on the bed while Zoe took a seat on top of her trunk.

Zoe sighed, "You've got to promise to let me finish the story though okay? No interruptions."

Lily put both her hands up, "Promise!"

Zoe took another breath and began, "Last year was the year James and you started dating. And as you know I don't have many friends so I kind of felt alone because you spent all your time with James. There was someone else who was feeling the same way I did. That person was...uh...Severus."

Lily gasped and opened her mouth to say something.

"You promised!" Zoe pointed at her and Lily nodded, looking a bit angry.

"I know what he called you," she continued, "But he regretted it and since YOU were HIS only friend he felt alone as well. While you and James would go to Hogsmeade with the rest of the 'Marauders', Severus and I would spend time in the Great Hall talking about how horrible our families were. We'd also practice spells, curses, and hexes in classrooms every now and then. So one night while we were practicing, we kind of...you know...got a little carried away and we...made out."

She paused and looked down onto the floor, "That was when Sirius popped out of nowhere with a camera. After the flash, I practically threw Severus off of me. He ran for it, I don't blame him though. If he'd stayed, Sirius would have tormented him further. I don't know how he did it but he managed to get the posters to the common room before me."

To Zoe's surprise Lily was laughing and holding her sides.

"You...and...Snape..." she said through laughs.

"Not my best moment," Zoe fell back onto her trunk and covered her face.

There was a thud. Zoe got back up and saw Lily was now on the floor.

"You've lost your mind!" Zoe started laughing along.

After they had settled down, Lily wiped some tears from her face.

"I admit, it's a bit weird but I understand. It's like during our 4th year when you and what's his name...Jeffrey were dating. I had no study partner!"

Zoe smirked, "It was Jack. And again...not my best moment. Did I ever tell you that we only kissed once? That one time it felt like he was trying to eat my face."

Lily slowly stopped laughing, "Just a thought, how'd Sirius find out?"

"I have no clue. But then again Sirius and Severus seem to always know what the other is doing. It's eerie," Zoe heard a knock upstairs.

"I'm not expecting anyone," Lily looked towards the stairs.

They ran up and didn't see anyone near the front door. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were raking the grass into heaps on the lawn. They looked towards the living room window and saw a reddish brown owl tapping on a window with its beak. The owl resembled a cat with wings and had been Zoe's companion ever since she had entered Hogwarts.

"Seto!" Zoe let her owl in and it perched itself on her shoulder.

"He's got a note on him," she approached the owl and untied the piece of parchment, "It's from Craig."

"Give it here," Zoe grabbed for the note and read it aloud, "Forgot someone? He screeched bloody murder after the fight. Told him where you were going, damn smart bird you have. Anyways, just wanted to let you know that I'm okay. Mum's stopped crying. blah blah blah and dad...well you know dad... Just gotta say a couple 'Hail the Dark Lord' to get them off my case. Once you start school, I'll send the rest of your stuff. Seto seemed to just want to see you and wouldn't take anything with him. Well, hope all is well. Send me a letter when you can. To my apartment, not to the house. Love you, Craig."

Seto nibbled on Zoe's ear, "You adorable creature, you!"

"So how you feeling?" Lily watched as Zoe folded up the letter and put it in her jeans.

"Relieved. He's okay and that's all that really matters. Found out my mum has feelings after all," Zoe said coolly.

"I have a spare cage for Seto if you'd like."

"I'll let him go out for a hunt. Would you like that, Seto?" the owl gave a loud hoot and flew back out the window, "I'll set up the cage later."

"Let's go see what mum made," Lily shut the window and followed Zoe into the kitchen. There were sandwiches on a platter.

They finished eating most of them and went to Lily's room. There were pictures of James and her on the walls and pictures of the family. Zoe looked through them all and noticed that Petunia kept to the background. Zoe felt a little hint of jealousy. She didn't hate her parents, she only thought that they had made the wrong choices. Her parents had been brainwashed as kids to believe that purebloods were better than anyone. They hadn't stood a chance.

She remembered the day she first found out about the family's involvement with the Dark Arts. She had barely turned 8.

_"Don't go downstairs," Craig came into her room pale faced, "Put on your headphones and don't take them off until I say so. I'll come get you...after...well...just listen to the whole CD. Don't go out there okay?"_

_"What's going on?" Zoe stared at him._

_"Just put them on, Zoo," he grabbed the headphones and put them over her ears. He put the volume to the loudest setting and left the room in a hurry._

_'Send us a blindfold, send us a blade_

_Tell the survivors help is on the way_

_I was a blindfold, never complained_

_All the survivors singing in the rain_

_I was the one with the world at my feet_

_Got us a battle, lea-'_

_The battery died. Zoe looked around for batteries but didn't find any. She got off of her bed and crept out of her room. _

_"Craig," she whispered, "Craig, my batteries are dead."_

_"CRUCIO!" A woman's voice yelled from the floor below._

_All that followed were screams of pain and laughter. Zoe slowly and silently walked down the stairs and peeked into the living room. There was someone on the floor twitching and contorting into very awkward angles. Her eyes widened. There stood her mother with her wand out and pointed at the twitching body. She suddenly felt herself being lifted from behind. She was being taken back to her bedroom but she didn't bother looking at who was carrying her, her eyes were staring at her mother._

_"I told you to stay in here," a familiar voice echoed in her ears, "Just stay here, I'll be right back with some warm milk for you okay? Don't know why I didn't do this in the first place..."_

_After drinking the glass of milk, she fell asleep immediately. Craig had refused to say anything about that night until she had turned 16. He explained to her what her parents did and how they became supporters of Lord Voldemort as he rose to power._

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" a hand was snapping its fingers in front of Zoe's face.

"Oh sorry Lily...I was just looking at your pictures," she shook her head and turned to face Lily, "What were you saying?"

Lily looked at the pictures and then back at Zoe,"You're part of the Evans family also, Zoo. See?"

She pointed to some photos on her mirror. One showed Zoe and Lily jumping around with their O.W.L. test results. The Zoe in the picture seemed to be very clumsy. She had tripped over her own feet while Lily kept dancing around. There was another one taken during Lily's 16th birthday. It showed Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Petunia, Lily, and Zoe gathered around a tall delicious looking chocolate cake.

"There's still a couple more I haven't put up yet. Lack of tape," Lily sighed and sat down on her desk chair.

"Heh," Zoe walked to the bed and laid on it, "So what were you saying before I entered my daze?"

"Remus decided to stay in school after all. Remember how he missed so many classes last year? He told me during the beginning of summer that this year he won't miss as much."

"He couldn't have failed anyways. Dumbledore made sure that he wasn't expelled because of...his condition. I reckon we should tell Toony about him haha," Zoe imagined the look of horror Petunia would make if she found out they were acquainted with a werewolf.

"You know, I've been thinking," Lily squinted at Zoe, "We should go do something out of the ordinary before we go back to Hogwarts. I mean we've already studied enough for our future tests. It's our last year in school!"

Zoe gasped and her eyes widened, "LIly Evans! We are both honorary members of the Slug Club, amazingly gifted in magic, incredibly attractive, and highly intellegent!"

Lily looked at her, confused, "Aaaaand your point is?"

"My point is I don't think we have any idea how to do something out of the ordinary and fun," Zoe sighed.

"I know someone who knows exactly what to do!" Lily squealed.

"Let me guess..."

"JAMES!" They said at the same time.

"Saw that coming, but I say we look for our own fun though. If you ask James you'll either change your mind or he'll talk you out of it."

Lily nodded in agreement, "You're right. So what do we do?"

"I've got it!" Zoe sat up straight, "I'll send a letter to Craig when Seto comes back and ask him if he knows any places we can go to. He's been everywhere so he should have a good idea."

"Let me run it by my mum and dad first," Lily said, "We may want to be rebellious but we don't want them up all night worrying."

Zoe saluted her, "Aye aye cap'n!"

The night came and went. Zoe had written her letter to Craig and he'd replied the next morning with a list of places.

"The Gnarly Broom sounds pretty interesting," Zoe and Lily were sitting in the living room couch reading the list.

"Hm, I don't know about going to a Wizard's bar or lounge or whatever."

"True, how about this?" Zoe pointed to the name 'The Demon's Door'. That sounds promising don't you think?"

"Is it just a door?" Lily joked.

"Good thing you're not studying to be a comedianne," Zoe chuckled, "I vote for the door!"

"Me too!"

"Great! We should get makeovers before friday while we're at it!" Zoe made a face that looked like she'd eaten something sour and her hair grew long, black, and curly.

"What about me?" Lily tugged lightly on one of her strands of hair, "This'll take ageeees to grow!"

"We're witches," Zoe pointed towards a spell book on Lily's desk, "Why are you Head Girl?"

Lily threw a pencil at her.

"In all honesty, I think you should let your hair be. We'll just curl it and find some very good hair spray," Zoe got up and played with Lily's hair, "There's only one thing I can't morph onto my face. Make up."

The sound of someone clearing their throat startled them.

"Ahem," Petunia said, "This just came for you, Lily."

She set down a black envelope on the desk and glared at it then walked back to her room.

Lily opened the envelope and read over it first before saying aloud, "It's an invitation from James to the both of us."

"To what?" Zoe looked at the invitation, " A masquerade? Is he kidding?"

"It's actually very thoughtful. I told him how I wanted to go out and do something crazy before going back to school. Oh but we won't be able to go to The Door. It's this friday!"

"The Demon's Door, Lily, and I actually don't mind going to this thing! It sounds really cool!" Zoe imagined herself with a black mask, "Nobody would know who I am! Your boyfriend though scares me a bit. He might be a seer."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Oh come off it."

Zoe mimicked their Divination teacher, "Heeeeee possesseeeeees theeeee giiiiiiift ooooooof seeeeeeeeing theeeeeeee fuuuutuuuuure. ooooooooo!"

"That would be a really long class if she did those noises with every word she spoke," Lily playfully shoved Zoe away.

"It would be a more bothersome class also," Zoe chuckled, "We've already got our dresses for the party so no worries."

Lily looked at her in surprise, "We are not going to wear the same dress twice, Zoe Hitzig."

"It's not our wedding, Lily Evans," Zoe made the same face as Lily.

"We're going shopping first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Oh come ooooon! We already finished shopping yesterday! You have an unhealthy addiction to mornings. I suggest I set up a meeting with one of my vampire cousins to help you with that."

"TOMORROW MORNING! I'll provide coffee. Deal?

"Uggggh deal," Zoe groaned, "That means morning cartoons are cancelled then?"

Another pencil found its way onto Zoe's face.

"Why 'wood' you do that?" Zoe laughed at her own joke, "Wood as in you know...what your desk is made of."

"I'm going to go write back to James. Can I borrow Seto?"

"Your sense of humor needs some tuning. Sure thing, he's in the basement perched somewhere. He's not too fond of cages."

"Thank you, I won't be long so turn on the radio or television. Be right back!"

Zoe looked around and turned on the radio. She turned knobs and switches trying to find something good to listen to when she came across a Wizard radio station that sounded interesting. It was a man telling a scary story about trolls and undead armies. She sat down again on Lily's bed and listened intently.

CRACK!

Someone had apparated behind her. She felt a wand poke the back of her head.

"Don't...move..." the voice seemed to come from a man. It was low, cool, and calm.

"Who-" the man cut her off.

"Don't speak."


	4. Chapter 4

"Avada Kedavra!" the man shouted.

Zoe shut her eyes tightly, expecting death. But it didn't come. Instead she heard stifled laughter. She opened her eyes slowly and turned. The man who had held his wand to her head wasn't even holding a wand, he was holding the pencil Lily had thrown at her earlier. It was her older brother, Craig. His shoulder length brown hair was held back in a ponytail and his green eyes were staring at Zoe in amusement. He started laughing at her scared facial expression.

"I could have killed you, you know?" He gasped for breath.

"I hope you die of laughter!" Zoe punched him on the arm.

He rubbed the place Zoe had punched him on "Where's your wand then?" 

"It's in the basement..." Zoe said through gritted teeth.

"Well that's not a very good place to put it now is it?" Craig dusted his black leather jacket off,

"Where's Lily?"

There was a scream at the doorway. Lily stood there, pale faced looking at the two of them. Her face turned red. She had always fancied Craig a little, he wasn't too bad looking. Lily said it was mainly because he reminded her of Cheap Trick's singer, Robin Zander.

"I...I heard voices..." she stammered and walked awkwardly into the room, setting the house phone down on her desk.

"Sorry for the scare, Lily," Craig smirked and hugged her.

She gave him a small pat on the back and turned away fast, surely trying to hide her blushing face. She swore she heard her giggle a little. Zoe then hugged her brother and playfully tugged at his ponytail.

"I could have died!" Zoe glared at him affter the hug ended.

"I could have written on you to death, perhaps," Craig chuckled, "I can't stay long, gotta head back to work. Just came by to see my baby sister." He grabbed her face and smushed it together.

Zoe batted his hand away, "One day I'll show up at your place and hex you, just you wait."

"I also came by to give you this," Craig took something out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Zoe. It was a small rectangular box.

"What is it?" asked Zoe. 

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Professor Dumbledore asked me to give it to you. Saw him yesterday and he thought it'd be safer if I brought it to you personally."

Zoe held the box in her hands, inspecting it. It looked like the sort of box that people gifted jewelry in. Maybe it was a bracelet or a necklace, she thought.

"Well," Craig cleared his throat, "I've got to get going back to the Ministry. Heard about the party this friday. You two have fun and be safe, all right?"

He threw the pencil he'd still been holding onto and threw it at Zoe as he disapparated with a loud CRACK!

"Oh," Zoe let out an exasparated sigh, "One day I'll get him back good."

Lily giggled, "What do you reckon's in the box?"

"Only one way to find out," she took off the top lid of the box, "It's...a potion."

She held the small glass container and looked for something that would tell her what it was. A note fell out.

_"When the time is right, you'll need to use this. Be sure to drink the whole bottle in order to avoid taking a trip to St. Mungo's."_

Lily took it gently from Zoe's hands, "This looks familiar."

"Don't open it though," Zoe stared at the red orange liquid inside.

"You're right," Lily set it inside the box, "You should keep that on you at all times. Precaution, you know."

Zoe nodded in agreement, "How about we go to a muggle shop instead of Diagon Alley for the dresses? It'd make it easier on your mum. She wouldn't have to drive us or anything."

Lily grinned, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because your too busy thinking if it's wrong to have a crush on my brother while you're with James," Zoe smirked.

"Oh shut up!"

Later that evening, Zoe wasn't able to fall asleep like everyone else had.

_"When the time is right..."_ she changed into her pajamas and got into bed still thinking about the potion. Seto wasn't in the room and the cage Lily had lended her was open.

She took out the potion from the box and set it beside her on the nightstand. In the morning she would place it inside her purse and only use it when she needed to, just like Dumbledore had said. All of a sudden, Seto flew in through the basement window and landed on top of her with a letter in his beak. She turned on her lamp and read over the note.

_"You awake?"_

Zoe thought it was James responding to Lily's earlier letter. She grabbed a quill and before she could start writing, someone approaced the basement window Seto had come through.

"Psst!"

"Who's there?" Zoe reached under her pillow for her wand and pointed it at the window.

"Thought it'd be easier to just come over here than wait for a response," a familiar voice said.

Just as Zoe realized who it was, the person had bent down to look into the basement.

She let out an exasparated groan and lowered her wand, "What is the matter with you?"

Sirius smiled, "I was in the neighborhood!"

"Keep your voice down, people are sleeping," Zoe got out of bed and turned on the lights. At her window was Sirius wearing a silly grin which matched his silly pink hair.

"Ohh nice pj's. Were you expecting someone?" Sirius raised his eyebrows.

She looked down at herself. She was wearing a tank top and some short shorts. In reality, she actually didn't even look at the pajamas she had grabbed from her dresser.

"Shut up," Zoe mumbled as she put on the jeans and sneakers she'd been wearing earlier, "So what do you want, Sirius?"

"Like I said, I was in the neighborhood," he stood back up so only shoes were visible.

Zoe stared, "Do you want me to follow you or something?"

He walked away without responding.

"Men," Zoe muttered and quietly went up the stairs and out the front door.

"BOO!" Sirius jumped out of nowhere in front of Zoe.

Zoe quickly put her hands over her mouth and let out a small yelp. Sirius let out a barely audible cackle.

"That was not funny," Zoe hissed at him.

Mill Town looked different from when she had arrived on the Knight Bus. All the terraced brick houses were dark and there was absolutley no one outside. Some of the light posts were off and gave the street the Evans' live on eerie. One shone on a motorcycle in front of the house.

"Lily's got a nice place here," Sirius sighed as he looked around as well.

"It's rather homey," Zoe added, "Sirius, what are you doing here at this time of night?"

Sirius looked at Zoe, "I couldn't sleep and I'd seen your owl with James. I took it upon myself to bring your feathered friend back to you and get some fresh air while at it."

Zoe raised an eyebrow, "Well, I couldn't sleep either so I guess this is a good thing, right?"

"Fancy a stroll around here?"

"Sure," Zoe shrugged.

They walked in silence for a block until Sirius stopped abruptly. Zoe kept walking and turned to see what had stopped him.

"Tired already?" Zoe joked and walked back towards him.

"No," he seemed to be thinking hard about something, "Just...can I ask you something?"

"You already have!"

"Seriously. I want to know, how have you been dealing with your family issues?"

Zoe was surprised to see Sirius so...well...serious, "You mean the Death Eater issues? Or the being kicked out on my bum issues?"

Sirius chuckled, "Both."

"I assume Lily told James and James told you."

"And I assume James told Lily and Lily told you."

Zoe nodded and chuckled, "We've got to have them do Unbreakable Vows to not gossip."

"I concur," Sirius and Zoe began walking again.

This time instead of sharing awkward silences, Zoe and him exchanged stories of their families. Each telling the other about their experiences with rejection from their parents. Seto had intterupted them at one point, apparently trying to get Zoe back home but he gave up and instead perched himself on a tree next to the house. Before they knew it the sun had started coming out. They'd been walking around the block without noticing the time.

"Looks like we've got to be getting back to our humble abodes," Zoe looked around to see where they had ended up. She saw the Evans' white picket fence a couple of houses down.

"Looks like it," sighed Sirius, "I need to go look at places like I mentioned before."

"Good luck with that," Zoe and him walked side by side towards Lily's house.

Once Zoe was at the door, Sirius began walking towards his motorcycle.

"See you at the Masquerade," Sirius winked as he got on.

Zoe shook her head and waved. She had forgotten her keys to the front door so she went through the basement window, barely fitting as she heard the roar of Sirius' vehicle drive off. She landed on her feet with a small thud, Seto flying in after her. She took off her jeans and laid on top of her bed for a while, thinking about what Sirius and her had talked about. He mentioned that he was working a couple of summer jobs so he could move out of the Potters' and that he was currently dating a girl by the name of Gertrude. Zoe couldn't help but laugh when he mentioned the name. He had also said that he was only dating her for a week, she hadn't cared about his pink hair. She thought he was making a statement, Sirius said. Even after a sleepless night, she still wasn't tired. She grabbed some clean clothes and went to shower upstairs.

"AHEM!" someone cleared their throat in the kitchen.

Zoe slowly turned to see who it was.

"Get some good sleep, Zoe?" Lily smirked as she took a sip of what smelled like coffee.

"Erm...yes...dreamt I was in Beauxbatons and a very handsome french fellow proposed to me..."

"Ah," Lily cleared her throat again, "The stores open at 10 so you better start getting ready then."

"What time is it?" Zoe looked at the clock on the stove.

"It's 9:30," Lily was still smiling.

Zoe nodded and showered quickly. She put on her clothes, which didn't differ from what she had been wearing the previous day, and went back into the kitchen.

"I'm ready!" Zoe said chirpily.

"Here's some coffee," Lily handed her a thermos, "And off we go!"

"So was your prnce's name Sirius?" Lily said after walking a few blocks away from home and towards the shopping centre.

Zoe looked surprised, "How'd you know?"

"Oh please," Lily rolled her eyes, "Sirius drives a motorcycle, it's impossible NOT to hear him arrive. You're lucky my parents are very heavy sleepers. One time I had accidentally turned Petunia's hair purple and her shrieks didn't even wake them up."

"I didn't even hear the motorcycle!" Zoe looked at her surroundings.

They had been walking for a while and had reached the shops. It was almost as busy as Diagon Alley had been the last time they'd gone. Instead of wizards and witches around, there were normal human beings browsing through the stores.

"What did you two do at that time of night?" Lily asked as she opened the door to a unique looking place where there were a couple of mannequins on display with purple and bright pink wigs with dress gowns on.

"We talked," Zoe answered, "Family and school stuff."

"Oh, grab that dress," Lily pointed at a red dress.

Zoe handed it over to Lily and looked through the racks, "He's dating some girl named Gertrude. Isn't that a funny name?"

"It is," Lily chuckled, "I'd forgotten to tell you, Remus and Peter will also be making an appearance on friday."

"Ugh," Zoe let out a groan, "I don't like Peter. He gives me the creeps, the way he's always after the Marauder lot. He accidentally set Slughorn's robes on fire once while he was trying to make a fire protection potion. Irony, eh?"

Lily stopped looking through the dresses and gave Zoe an apprehensive look, "He's just trying to fit in is all. He's not the smartest person but he means well."

"I'm not saying anything bad about him, it's just that he's sort of weird," Zoe gave Lily a playful shove, "When did you get all Marie Antoinette?"

"Oh shut up," Lily laughed, "Do you reckon we have enough to try on right now?"

Zoe hadn't even grabbed one dress and Lily already had an armful of them hanging on her arm. She grabbed a random dress and held it up.

"I'll try this one one," Zoe and Lily went into the dressing rooms. After a small struggle Zoe managed to zip herself up.

Lily was already looking at herself in the mirror. Zoe looked at how the dress looked on her in the mirror next to Lily and was amazed.

"It's actually perfect," Zoe whispered more to herself than to Lily. She gave a small twirl and squealed, "I'm done for the day!"

Lily looked over and gasped, "Wow, those colors look amazing on you! I'm a little jealous."

It was a strapless ball gown with a dark purple feathered bodice, beaded waistband and a dark purple and red tulle skirt.

"All I need is a mask and I'm done!"

Lily frowned at herself in the mirror and turned to Zoe, "Does this color make me look a little heavy?"

Zoe twirled around, "I don't think it's the color, Lily..."

Lily was wearing an oversized blue shimmery dress and was currently trying to keep the straps from falling away from her shoulders. She went back to her dressing room and after a couple of minutes came out in a green strapless ball gown which looked like it was the perfect fit. It had a gathered skirt, ruched bodice, and beading at the sweetheart neckline. It was a brighter green than the other dress she had purchased in Diagon Alley.

"You really like green don't you?" Zoe was still wearing her dress.

"James has said it brings out my eyes a lot more," her face turned a light pink.

"He's right. This dress is a lot prettier than the other one! Well I'm going to go change and buy this before I start finding something wrong with it," Zoe stood up and took one last look at herself in the mirror before entering the dressing room once more. She heard Lily squeal outside and shuffle into her dressing room.

They purchased their dresses and tried finding a store that sold masks. Just before entering a costume store, something caught Zoe's eye.

"Look at them..." Zoe said in a whisper.

Lily noticed a group of boys and girls around their age sitting at a cafe. Besides the table, they had bags that obviously contained some sort of instruments.

"They've probably forgotten about me by now," Zoe added, "Ever wonder what life would be like without magic?"

Lily always wondered about a wandless existence. Maybe Petunia would have been more of a sister to her than a silent enemy, "It would have been nice. But we made a choice, Zoe. All we can do now is think about what could have been."

Zoe shook her head, "Let's go find our masks!"

She took one last glance at the group and walked into the store with Lily. They didn't have to look very long to find what they were looking for. They found a whole aisle dedicated to masks. There were scary masks, goofy masks, and masquerade masks. Lily had the most trouble finding one that matched her green dress while Zoe almost immediately found a red mask that matched her gown perfectly.

"Why do I always have trouble finding anything?" Lily muttered while going through a set of masks hanging on a peg.

"Try matching it with the beading on it," Zoe looked through another set of masks for a silver one and found it, "Here you go. This way you won't look too much like the Grinch."

Lily chuckled, "Thank you."

After a short day of shopping they made their way back home, talking about different things. Before they knew it they were already there.

"I'm just going to hang everything up so I can get ready quickly tomorrow," Zoe entered the quiet Evans' house with Lily trailing behind.

"I'm going to need your help with my face and hair though," Lily closed the door behind her.

"That's what we forgot!" Zoe groaned, "We forgot to buy our faces!"

"I don't wanna go back out again," Lily plopped down on her sofa.

"It's okay. I'll go to the nearest store right now while you do whatever it is that you do," Zoe gave a small chuckle, "I know your colors so it'll be easy."

She set down her bags near the door to the basement, "Tell James hi for me."

Zoe walked past the white picket fence and back towards the shopping center. Before reaching it however, someone grabbed ahold of her arm and pulled her back. She reached into her pocket and held her wand tight, not wanting to make a spectacle out in the open.

"Calm down," a cold familiar voice said, "It's just me."

The hand loosened on her arm and she saw it had been Severus Snape who had surprised her. His greasy hair was covering most of his face but she could tell he was blushing.

"Snape..." Zoe took her hand out of her pocket and gently shook her arm free of his grasp,

"What's going on?"

"We need to talk," there was a hint of sadness in his voice, "I need you to come with me first though."

Zoe looked back towards Lily's house and then back at Snape, "What for?"

"I can't say much out here, though. Trust me, it's important."

She looked once more at the Evans' and shook her head, "Okay, but I can't be out for too long."

Having put her new dress away, Lily made her way downstairs and dialed James. He picked up almost immediately.

"How do you pick up the phone so fast?" Lily asked, amused.

"You're the only one who calls," James laughed.

"How's your day been so far?"

"It's been a bit hectic. Sirius and I have been making preparations for the party. My mum's been helping as well, it's going to be amazing. How about you?"

"I went shopping with Zoe earlier. She's just gone out to buy stuff we forgot. Come to think of it, she's been out a while," she walked into the living room and sat down again on the couch.

"She's probably just terrorizing some poor blokes out there," James chuckled.

"More than likely. How's Sirius?"

"He managed to find a place. If he hadn't dyed his hair back to its original color, he might not have gotten it. He'll be moving out during the winter holidays though. It's not the nicest of places but it reeks Sirius."

"Oh, hey I'll call you back later. Zoe just got back. I love you."

"I love you too."

Lily hung up the phone and went to meet Zoe at the entrance. She was holding a small paper bag.

"I got the stuff," Zoe threw the bag at Lily and laughed as she fumbled with it.

"What took you so long?"

Zoe looked at her and didn't respond.

"Zoe?"

She shook her head, "Oh sorry, kind of zoned out for a moment. Heh. I just got a little held up by the store. The old band was playing and I watched for a bit."

Lily didn't know whether or not to believe her. Zoe looked more cheerful than usual and couldn't keep her eyes set on one thing. During dinner, every time a question was directed at Zoe, she merely gave them a one worded answer or didn't even give them one. She seemed very distant. This continued until the end of the day when everyone had gone to bed. At night, determined to find out what was going on with her best friend, Lily snuck down towards the basement but stopped abruptly as she heard something that sounded like crying. She wanted to go downstairs but knew Zoe would be upset if she were to find her like that. After some difficult delibiration, Lily went back into her room and fell asleep.

The next day, Zoe didn't appear to have puffy eyes or the sniffles. She simply continued on being overly cheerful and dreamy. Something had happened on her way to the store, Lily thought. But what could have caused her to shut off?

Before going to bed that night, Lily went into the basement and confronted Zoe.

"What's wrong with you?" Lily said plainly.

"Nothing," Zoe had been in the process of getting into her bed, "What makes you say that?"

"Well for one thing you've been in such a daze. Just wandering around like a happy zombie."

Zoe sighed and sat on the bed, "I didn't lie about the band. When I saw them play, I just got to thinking about everything I've missed out on. A normal childhood, loving parents, happy memories. It just...everything's catching up to me. When I saw them again, I had some sort of vision of what my life could have been like."

Lily took a seat next to her, "I understand where you're coming from. Not completely, but I get the idea. Nobody gets to choose their families. You need to learn to make the best of life no matter what."

"Yeah...," Zoe muttered, "Hey, maybe one day I'll marry a psychologist and he'll help me out."

"Hopefully," Lily gave her a hug, "We all know you need it."

Zoe playfully shoved her away, "Jerk. Ah well I need to get my beauty rest for tomorrow and god knows you do too."

Lily scoffed, "Jealous haha good night, Zoe."

"Night, Lily."

Lily left the basement and Zoe got under her covers, "Tomorrow's a new day, Seto."

Her owl had flown in with something in its beak. She saw in the moonlight that it was just a dead mouse. He gulped it down, gave Zoe a small hoot, and flew back outside. Zoe turned on her side and faced the wall. Sleep would come soon and make everything better, she thought. It eventually did.


	5. Chapter 5

**Kept getting an error message trying to upload this but finally found a way around it! What would we be without the internet? It offers solutions to EVERYTHING! :D**

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It was the day of the party and Zoe was in Lily's bedroom staring at herself in her mirror. She was trying to see what hairstyle fit her dress better, scrunching up her face every time she changed it. Lily, on the other hand, was reading a magazine to see what she could do with her long red hair and with her face.

"I think red is a maybe..." Zoe scrunched her face up again.

"You're so lucky to be a metamorphmagus. I can't understand half the steps in this magazine! How do I get my hair to do that?" Lily shoved the magazine under Zoe's nose.

The woman in the page was wearing her hair in a sophisticated updo, "Hmm, I'll help you decipher this once I finish up here."

She handed the magazine back to Lily and, without scrunching up her face, managed to elongate her hair up to her waist and color it bright red.

"Do you think I should tone it down a little?"

"A lot. Maybe you should stick to your NATURAL hair color. What happened to scrunching up your face?" Lily was reading the magazine again.

Zoe's hair went from bright red to dark brown, "McGonagall taught me last term to not do that anymore. It's a force of habit though. Just trying it her way for once."

She changed her hair once more so it became curly and dark red.

"That looks nice," Lily looked up at her and back down onto another set of instructions.

Zoe pulled out her wand and pointed it at Lily's head. She muttered a spell and Lily's hair bunched up into a flawless bun.

"And now," she grabbed a silvery wire and wrapped it around Lily's head, giving her a sort of Greek look.

Lily touched the wire on her head and squealed, "How did you do that?"

"Magic," Zoe sat back down in front of the mirror and started fixing her own hair. WIth another muttered spell and a flick of her wand, her hair was made into a messy side bun with her bangs swept to the side.

"Next, faces," Lily grabbed her desk chair and sat next to Zoe in front of the mirror, "Any spells for that?"

"There are but I didn't read all the way through," Zoe organized the cosmetics into Lily's pile and her own pile.

They found themselves bumping each others arms while they were putting on eye shadows and liner. At one point, Lily had nearly made Zoe stab her own eye. After half an hour, they were ready. They put on their dresses and masks and hurried to the front of the house where Mr. and Mrs. Evans were waiting to take pictures of them. After a short photo shoot, they were inside the car and on their way to the place James' had indicated in the invitation. As soon as they arrived, their mouths opened in awe of the place the masquerade was to be held.

"James lives in a bloody castle?" Zoe gasped.

"Oh, no," Lily chuckled as they got out of the car, "This is his uncles' estate. James' house is far less...well...fancy I guess."

The Evans' said their goodbyes and drove off while Zoe and Lily entered the castle. There were a lot of people already there. Everywhere they looked was a masked stranger speaking with other masked strangers. The ballroom was enormous, it resembled something that could have been in a fairy tale. There was a domed glass ceiling, a big open space in the middle for dancing, and an orchestra.

"How much money did he spend on this?" Zoe whispered to Lily.

Lily sighed, "Not much actually. His uncle's letting him use this free of charge and who needs to buy anything anyways when you have magic?"

Zoe nodded, "That's true."

"You look absolutely lovely," James embraced Lily from behind and planted a kiss on the back of her head.

She spun around and laughed, "You do too. This is the first time I've seen you in a tuxedo. You look rather handsome."

Zoe rolled her eyes and looked around the room. Approaching them were 3 men,

"Let me guess, Remus," she pointed to a man in a wolf's mask, "Peter and Sirius."

"You guessed correctly, Hitzig," the man in the wolf's mask said, "It's so good to see you again. I must say I like what you did with Sirius' hair. It matched his skin tone rather well."

The shortest of the men had on a mask with whiskers, resembling a rat and Sirius was wearing a plain black mask. Zoe could see small traces of pink still in Sirius' pulled back hair.

"I can see you tried to dye it back, Black," Zoe chuckled, "Nice try."

There was an eerieness to Sirius tonight, Zoe observed. The way his piercing blue eyes looked covered by the black mask. It made his gaze a little more unnerving than usual.

"Not bad for a first try, eh?" Sirius winked.

"We had to help him with some of it," Peter said. The way he talked certainly did make him look and sound a bit like a rat.

Remus and Peter were both wearing tuxedos without a bowtie like James was, while Sirius wore a black suit and dress pants with a t-shirt of a band.

"Is this everyone?" Lily asked James as she held his hand.

James scoffed, "Oh no. This is the party of the century. These people are just the beginning."

"Did you invite everyone from school?" Lily furrowed her brows together.

"Heavens no," James smirked, "Just most of them. At least the ones who aren't Sniverus or stupid."

"Ah well that would explain why Narcissa isn't here," Zoe muttered under her breath.

They walked towards a circular table on the far side of the room, away from everyone, and took a seat. The seating arrangements went Remus, Zoe, Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter. Peter scampered away, not saying anything. They just assumed that he had gone to the washroom.

"So how's life treating you, Remus?" Zoe asked as they each broke up into conversations. Lily and James were surely talking of marriage, babies, and school, Zoe thought. Sirius was sitting silently. Every now and then she caught him staring at Lupin and her.

"It could be better, as I'm sure you know," Remus said, "It's a bit difficult to hide my secret from society back home. But I've got the Mauraders to help me. How about you? You talked greatly of leaving your house last year."

"And I did leave it. I was forced out though before I got the chance to make my own choice," she laughed, "But it's been good not having to see my parents."

"Craig still works at the Ministry, I assume?"

"Yes, he still does. I would have gone with him but then they would have surely disowned him as well," she looked up again to see if Peter had come back and saw James and Lily had gone to get some drinks.

"I think we're going to be the only thirsty ones here," Remus joked.

"You all right there, Sirius?" Zoe had noticed he was getting a bit bored.

"Oh quite all right," he said in a quiet voice.

"I'm going to go get something to drink," Remus stood up, "Fancy anything?"

"A water please?"

"Okay, you Sirius?" Remus nudged him as he walked past.

"No I'm okay," he answered and Lupin left, "You clean up nice, Hitzig."

Zoe blushed a little bit, "As do you, Sirius. Nice t-shirt by the way. So where's Gertie?"

"Dumped her," he stretched and yawned, "Too immature. She would always laugh when I told her I was being serious."

Zoe shook her head, "It is sort of funny, though."

"She did it for 5 days straight," Sirius stared directly at her, "It lost its humor."

"What were you being so serious about for 5 days straight?"

"Nothing," he said quietly as Remus, Lily, and James came back to the table.

Remus set Zoe's water in front of her while James and Lily sat down as well.

"You fancy taking a stroll?" Remus asked Zoe, "It'll be a bit before the party actually starts."

"Sure," Zoe took Remus' hand and went off with him to the garden.

As they reached the door leading outside, they heard a distant crash. They turned and saw Lily laughing as James and Sirius looked like they were cleaning something up. The garden was remarkably beautiful. There were hedges taller than them, a fountain in the middle and colorful flowers everywhere.

"James' uncle must be very wealthy," Zoe said in a hushed tone.

"He is. He works in the Ministry as well, though we don't know exactly what it is that he does."

"Did you want to talk to me about something?"

Remus took off his mask and sighed, "I'm enlisting your help this year."

Zoe looked at him as if he had spoken in a different language, "For what?"

"This is our last year and as you know Sirius, Peter, and James haven't had the best reputation thus far. Which is why I need your help in keeping them in check. I didn't do a very good job when I was a prefect and I regret that," he sighed again, "James I'm not too worried about, it's Peter and Sirius. If they slip up once, they'll be in even worse trouble than before since they're of age."

Zoe nodded, still a bit confused, "What makes you think that they'll listen to me? They barely even know me and vice versa."

He chuckled raspily, "Pettigrew will listen to just about anyone. As for Sirius, anyone who can put him in his place is worth listening to. That and he considers you a friend."

"A friend?"

"Just don't tell him anything I've said tonight. I care about my friends and I just want what's best for them."

"I'll try, but if I end up in some sort of cursed state, I'm blaming you," Zoe stretched out her hand and Remus shook it.

"Deal."

It was getting dark outside by the time they had gone back in. The room was now full of people in different outfits and masks. A man whizzed past them in a jester costume as they were trying to find the table they had been in. After a coouple of minutes, they found it. James and Sirius looked like they were having a serious discussion and Lily was busy talking to Peter.

Zoe took her seat along with Remus, "What's everyone talking about?"

James and Sirius broke away from their conversation and cleared their throats.

"Nothing," James smiled faintly, "Well then, I'm going to go ahead and tell the musicians to start playing."

"They're playing classical?" Peter piped up.

"No, they're a techno group called the Spinning Webs who can make those instruments sound like anything they'd like," Lily told him.

"Oh," Peter smiled widely, "this is going to be good."

Zoe looked towards Sirius and saw he had let down his hair. He was glaring at Lupin, much to her amazement. Remus wasn't paying any attention to him though, he was busy fixing his mask back on. She stood up and walked towards Sirius.

"Could I have a word with you?" she pinched his arm.

"Ouch," he rubbed the place where she had pinched him, "As long as you don't do that again."

They walked towards the garden where there were less people.

"What is the matter with you?" Zoe crossed her arms over her chest, "You're acting like a total prat."

Sirius clenched his jaw, "I'M acting like a total prat?"

"Yes! James did all this for us and you've just been acting like you don't even want to be here!"

"I DO want to be here," Sirius nearly shouted. The music inside had started playing and the lights had gone out. They were standing in near darkness, the only source of light were the strobe lights inside.

"Then why are you so boring all of a sudden?" she snarled back, "All you've been doing is pouting and moping."

"I'M boring? Really?" he let out a barking laugh.

Before she knew it, he had taken her arm and dragged her to the center of the room in between crowds of people. He was...dancing. And trying to get her to dance. She couldn't be mad anymore, the sight was too amusing. He was there jumping up and down and she was having a fit of laughter. After calming down a bit, she joined in the jumping along with everyone else.

After the song ended, they went back to the table. It seemed like Lily and James had gone out to dance also. James was sweating a bit and Lily was also. Peter was gone again and Remus had started chatting with a girl Zoe thought she recognized as a Ravenclaw.

"Isn't this amazing?" Lily squealed.

"Yes it is," Zoe nodded and took a big gulp of water.

Another song started. Sirius grabbed ahold of Zoe's arm again and she found herself in the middle of another crowd. They were throwing their hands up and bouncing up and down to the beat. Zoe and Sirius followed suit and danced through the song.

Zoe closed her eyes and let the music flow through her. She didn't know what she was doing but suddenly felt very peaceful, like she was falling asleep.

_"Sleep...wait...I can't open my eyes. Am I moving my arms? What's happened to the music?...It's dark...WAKE UP!"_

She felt her eyes open and looked around. She wasn't on the dance floor anymore, she was laid out on one of the benches outside. Sirius and Lupin were hovering over her.

"What the hell did you put in her water?" Sirius shouted at Lupin.

Lupin's face was pale and seemed angrier than she'd ever seen him, "If you're thinking I poisoned her..."

She could hear herself groaning in pain. Her body felt as if it were burning and tearing itself apart.

"Pu...pu...r...rr...purrr...purrrse..." she stammered.

"Get her goddamn purse!" Lupin yelled at Sirius.

Sirius stood up and shoved Lupin, "You get it!"

Zoe let out another groan, she would just appreciate being put out of her misery any way possible. Lupin looked down at her again. Before running inside, he glared at Sirius.

Sirius bent down over her again, "What have you gotten yourself into now?"

Zoe mustered up whatever energy she could and gave him the smallest shrug. Sirius chuckled weakly.

Lupin came back out and dumped the contents of her purse. In the pile of things, out rolled the potion bottle Dumbledore had sent to her. She lifted a finger and pointed at it. Lupin yanked the bottle stopper off and ordered Sirius to hold her head up. He poured the whole bottle in and she swallowed the red orange liquid. In a matter of seconds, the burning stopped. It still hurt a bit to breathe.

"What the hell was that?" Zoe stood up by herself and dusted off her dress, swaying a bit. There had been burn marks forming on her arms, but they were disappearing.

"How did you get that potion?" Lupin grabbed the empty potion bottle.

"Dumbledore gave it to me. He said to use it if I didn't want to end up in St. Mungo's," her mask had fallen down to her chin. She adjusted it and sat down, feeling dizzy.

"I thought you were knocked out after that girl elbowed you in the face," Sirius said, still looking a little worried.

"Let's get you back inside. Can you walk by yourself?" Lupin stretched out his arm but she gently pushed it away.

"I'm fine," she stood up and shook her head a bit. The ground seemed to be moving but it was slowly staying in place with each step she took.

"I think we should take you home," Sirius put his hand on her back, afraid she might fall.

"Ugh, you two worry warts. I'm fine. I just need to sit down and drink something. Preferrably not the water that nearly killed me though."

"I'll go get you something," Sirius let go and hurried inside to where the drinks were being handed out.

Lupin took her to the now empty table and sat down next to her. He held the glass that she had taken a drink from, "Who could have done this? I didn't see anyone come near here."

"I know it wasn't you though, Lupin," Zoe held her head in her hands, "I took a drink from it when you brought it to me, remember?"

Remus took the glass and spilled a little in one of the nearest plants. The plant immediately shriveled and turned to ash.

"Oh my," Zoe's eyes widened, "Good thing I'm not a plant. I would have died for sure."

Sirius came back with a new glass of water.

"Thanks," Zoe took it and gulped it down, "Where is everybody?"

"I just saw Peter talking to some girl near the band. James and Lily are out there somewhere," Sirius sat down next to Remus, "I just want to apologize, Remus."

"It's fine. It was a tough situation to be in," Remus patted him on the back.

Remus set down the potion bottle and poured the poisoned water inside it and closed it.

"Dumbledore?" Zoe asked.

"Yes, I'll keep it until Monday when we see him again," Lupin put it inside his coat pocket, which was hanging on the back of his chair.

Zoe was feeling better, maybe even better than she had before the incident, "I'd rather you not tell anyone except Dumbledore about this, please?"

"Understood," Sirius and Remus said at the same time.

After finishing her drink, Zoe saw Remus and Sirius scanning the room, surely looking for the culprit who wanted to kill her.

"It could have been anyone. Best to just let it rest for now," Zoe said.

"You nearly died!" Sirius stopped looking around and stared at her, "I don't think you understand the seriousness of it all!"

"I do! But why should I let it spoil my fun? I'm perfectly fine now!" Zoe and Sirius stared at each other, each not wanting to blink.

Someone interrupted their staring contest by tapping Zoe on the shoulder, "Excuse me, may I have this dance?"

She didn't recognize who it was but it didn't matter. She would have danced with Peter if it meant she could get away from Sirius, "Of course."

As Zoe walked away with the stranger, she gave a small kick at Sirius' seat.

The band had slowed down and the lights were dim. Couples were gathered at the dance floor, slow dancing.

"So who are you?" the masked man asked. He was wearing a suit that was half white and half black, along with matching pants. His mask was white with a black border around it. His eyes were smokey gray.

"Zoe Hitzig, of Hogwarts."

"Ah I think I know of you," the man said as he put one of his hands on her hip and the other held her hand.

"What about you?"

"Daniel Gretin," he answered, "I go to Beauxbatons. The Potters are very good friends with my family."

"Beauxbatons? That's funny. You don't have the accent."

"That's because I have a great speech therapist, I vould hate to talk like zis all ze time," he chuckled.

Zoe laughed, "Zat vould be dreadful."

"That sounds worse than my impersonation," Daniel joked.

They danced around and talked about random things until the song ended.

"It was a pleasure meeting you," Daniel took her hand and kissed it, "I'll see you around."

"Sure," Zoe turned and walked back to where Sirius now sat alone. She couldn't help but smile, Daniel had been very charming.

"I think you want to get yourself killed," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"Just because I danced?"

"You're going off with people you don't even know!"

"Black, you are trying my patience!"

Sirius laughed coolly, "And you mine! That bloke you went off with could have been the one that just tried to murder you!"

"You're assuming anyone that talks to me now is suddenly an assassin? You're mad!"

"Did we miss something?" Lily sat down with James, "What's going on?"

"Apparently Ms. Hitzig thinks that I, Sirius Black, am mad because I prefer the Cannons over the Tornadoes."

"The Tornadoes?" James scoffed, "Are you out of your mind?"

"No but your friend over there is!"

Sirius shook his head and began debating with Lily and Zoe about their Quidditch preferences. Every now and then he'd throw in a small 'The Tornadoes should be poisoned' or 'Their brooms should be burnt' causing Zoe to counterattack with 'The Cannons should be beaten to a pulp for saying such things' and 'They should be thrown off their high brooms'. They had stopped arguing when they heard James speaking over the microphone on the stage with the band.

"When did he leave?" Sirius asked Lily.

Lily rolled her eyes, "While you two were arguing."

Zoe felt something small hit her on her back. She looked round and found two girls dressed as gypsies glaring at her.

"What?" she mouthed to them.

They said something she couldn't understand but then they began pointing at Sirius then at her. She got the jist of it and shook her head ferverntly no. They continued to glare as they walked away.

"Thanks for everyone for showing up," James said over the mic, "I'd just like to say that it's been a pleasure doing time with most of you at school."

Everyone laughed.

"I'd like to ask Lily Evans to come up here with me please," James pointed towards where they were all sitting.

Lily turned bright red and walked towards the stage nervously. As she stood next to James, the whole room turned silent. James got down to one knee and brought out a small box.

He opened it and asked, "Lily Evans, will you make me the happiest man on earth?"

"Awwww!" The room said in unison.

"YES!" Lily shouted and lunged herself at him.

Everyone applauded.

"And now the last song of the day, ladies and gentlemen," James and Lily ran down to the dance floor where the crowd had opened up a circle around them and started slow dancing.

"It was a short party wasn't it?" Zoe asked no one in particular.

"Not really," Lupin answered, "We were out there with you for around two hours.

"What? And you didn't bother telling anyone about it? Better yet, did anyone even come looking for me?" Zoe was amazed, it had felt as if it had taken only ten minutes at most to wake up.

"Lily and James were dancing the whole night. And we were kind of secluded so no one saw what was happening," Lupin turned a light shade of red.

"I could have died during the whole thing! I think I should be more afraid of you two!" She started laughing, "Two hours...wow..."

Sirius let out his barking laugh and Lupin joined in. A girl came over to the table and whispered something into Sirius' ear.

"Well," he stopped laughing and smiled up at the girl, "I'm off to dance."

Lupin grabbed Zoe's hand, "We'll join you."

Sirius' smile faltered, "Right..."

They began swaying along next to Lily and James. Lily showed her ring off to Zoe and began jumping up and down squealing, still in the arms of James. Sirius and the girl didn't seem to know how to dance, they kept bumping into Lupin or Zoe every so often until the song ended. Everyone cheered and applauded before departing. After everyone had departed, they were left with a huge mess everywhere. Surprisingly, Peter had also stayed behind. They had barely seen him throughout the party.

"Where have you been all night?" Sirius asked.

Peter grinned, "I was with Fenix Hubert. She actually asked ME out."

Sirius' eyes widened, "Wow very good."

Lily and Zoe were chatting with their wands out, repairing broken things and having a broom magically sweep the floor by itself.

"You two can go home if you'd like," James placed his arm around Lily's waist, "We've got this under control."

"Are you sure?" Lily blushed.

"Yes," he kissed her cheek.

"All right then," Zoe said cheerily and put away her wand. The broom fell in its place, "Off we go!"

Everyone said their goodbyes as the two girls left.

"Tell me again," Zoe put her mask away in her purse, "Why your parents needed to drive us when we could have just disapparated like we're about to?"

"Because they enjoy driving us," Lily's expression was dreamy, "James is still going to go to my house and ask for my hand properly."

"Ah," Zoe nodded, "Very good."

"By the way," Lily said in a hushed tone, "What was going on with Sirius and you all night? You two weren't getting along very well."

"Oh dumb stuff, really," Zoe sighed, "Well, let's go."

There were two loud cracks and they were back home. Lily said her good night and went to bed. Zoe walked down to the basement and got dressed for bed as well. As soon as her head touched her pillow, she fell asleep.

She didn't sleep peacefully. In her dream, there was a man dressed all in black burning her alive. As soon as he was close enough to see his face, she woke up drenched in sweat.

"Dammit," she rubbed her eyes open and looked around the room. She let out a scream as she saw something move in the shadows. It, in fact, WAS a large shadow. She looked out her window and saw a big black dog trot past.

"Stupid dog," she laid back down and forced herself to fall asleep.

Her new dream was even stranger. She was writing notes sitting at her desk in transfiguration class while a cat wrote on the board. The cat was surely McGonagall, she thought. She looked down at the paper in front of her and realized her hands had turned to paws. She was holding her quill in between both of them and messily scribbling on the paper AND the desk now. She woke up again and checked her hands, still human. She growled and muttered to herself, it was was still nighttime. Her third attempt at sleeping was successful.

The weekend went by fast. Zoe still had the recurring burning dream, but little by little the man's face became clearer. On Saturday night, she had gotten past his chin and up to his nose. It was no one she recognized though, it was probably just a dream. Each time she woke up at night, though, she saw the black dog walk past. She assumed it was hiding bones in Lily's backyard so she let it be.

Sunday afternoon strolled along and James had visited. Lily had made up an excuse to go get something from Zoe in order to leave James and her parents alone. Zoe and Lily pressed their ears on the basement door, hoping to hear everything. They only got bits and pieces here and there but in the end they heard Lily's mom crying and James and Mr. Evans laughing. That was the cue for Lily to go back.

"What's happened?" Lily pretended to not know what was going on.

"Don't be so daft," Lily's mom cried, "James told us what's happened. Oh my baby girl is getting married!"

She threw her arms around Lily.

Mr. Evans detached her from his daughter and hugged her tightly, "I wish you both the best of futures."

"We're not getting married right away, dad," Lily chuckled, "We're waiting til we both graduate and get decent jobs."

"James mentioned that," Mr. Evans said, "And i'm glad you're thinking about this clearly."

Zoe walked back down the stairs and continued packing her things, all the meanwhile smiling. She couldn't believe that only last year, Lily absolutely hated James. Now they were getting married. After a while, Lily came down and hugged her.

"Can you believe it? I think we're going to be the only engaged couple at school!" she squealed.

"Possibly," chuckled Zoe, "Oh, I'd forgotten to mention that there's a dog digging up your backyard. He's there every night."

"The yard looks untouched though," Lily furrowed her brows, "You sure you're not dreaming about it?"

"Could be with all the crazyness going on," Zoe heaved a heavy set of books into her trunk.

They both finished packing and dined at a restaurant to celebrate Lily's engagement. Petunia had feigned sick in order to stay home instead. After getting home, they parted ways again. Zoe stayed up most of the night thinking about how her last year at Hogwarts was going to be. She wasn't afraid of her bullies anymore. This time she wouldn't let herself be put down. She scrunched up her face and changed her red curly hair to its natural dark brown wavy self. Seto flew in with something in his beak again.

Not wanting to see what it was, she muttered a good night to him and dreamt of the man in black again.


	6. Chapter 6

"You stupid...stupid...bag...ugh!" Zoe said through grunts as she tried to put her bag on the top shelf inside the compartment.

She hadn't noticed that right outside the compartment door, someone was to blame for the falling bag.

"Oh just fall then!" Zoe grabbed her bag and shoved it underneath her seat. She sat down and turned towards the window where she could see the small outlines of families and friends of the students waving good bye as they departed.

Lily had gone into another compartment with the prefects and James, themselves being Head Boy and Head Girl.

The door flew open and in came Remus, Peter, and Sirius, all smirking.

"Having trouble with your bag?" Sirius asked as he sat down next to her.

"It's fine now."

Sirius reached underneath her seat and put the bag on the shelf, "You probably couldn't reach it properly."

Zoe glared at him.

"Oh I'll be back in a bit," Peter had spotted a blonde haired girl walk past the compartment, they all immediately knew her to be Fenix. He ran out and shut the door behind him.

"I'm not entirely sure it was her who asked him out," Remus peered through the door.

A very tired looking Sirius let out a big yawn, "Well I apologize but I think I'm going to get some well deserved sleep."

"Been out with another conquest in the late hours of the night, have you?" Zoe pushed him away as he tried to sleep on her shoulder.

"Oh come on, the wall is very uncomfortable!" Sirius scooted closer to her again.

She got up and sat down with Remus, "There, now you can have the whole seat."

He grabbed his coat and used it as a pillow, "Thank you, this was my plan all along."

After a minute, the room was filled with muffled snores.

Remus cleared his throat, "So how are you feeling?"

"I've been feeling great, actually. Only thing is," Zoe looked around to see if anyone was listening in through the door, "Well...I've been having some dreams. They're very strange. I keep dreaming there's someone burning me alive."

"Hm," Remus squinted at her, "It could be just your mind going back to the night of the party and reliving what happened."

"That's what I thought," Zoe whispered, "I guess it's just going to take some time to get over it. So how have you been?"

"Been all right, no full moons yet so I've been very happy about that," he chuckled, "Other than that, just spending the weekend with Sirius at his apartment. It's really quite interesting. He's put an enchantment on it that makes it bigger than it appears to be."

After a bit of chatting, they decided to play a game of Exploding Snaps, in which Zoe wasn't very good at. Her constant losses woke up Sirius.

"Have you no respect?" he whined as he rubbed his eyes and stretched out his arms.

"Oh shut up," Zoe muttered as she grew more frustrated at the game.

They stopped playing when the trolley came by. Zoe and Sirius had nearly bought the whole lot.

"Another Dumbledore," Zoe sighed as she caught her chocolate frog before it lunged out the window.

"Me too," Sirius put the card aside and gulped down the frog, "You want one, Moony?"

Lupin shook his head, "No thank you. I don't entirely trust food that can run away from me."

"Unless it's on a full moon, eh?" Sirius joked.

Both Sirius and Zoe had regretted eating so many sweets. Soon they were holding their stomachs and groaning.

Peter walked in with a huge smile on his face, "Fenix let me sit with her and her friends. Jonathan Kipling was there too. He says...what's wrong?"

"Don't mind them," Remus prodded Zoe on her ribs, "Had a little too much to eat."

Peter chuckled and grabbed a card on the floor, "Oh I don't have this one. Can I keep this?"

"Uh-huh," grunted Sirius.

The door flung open and an agitated Lily huffed and sat down, "The nerve of that Narcissa. She tried jinxing a first year in front of us! James is out there trying to stop the poor boy's ears from growing."

"What are you doing in here? Aren't you supposed to be helping him?" Zoe stuck her head out the doorway and saw a small boy covering his head as James kept flicking his wand at him.

"I will. I'm just letting him give it a try," Lily fixed her disheveled hair.

"OW!" the boy yelped.

"That's my cue," Lily walked out and closed the door behind her.

"Accio notebook and quill," Zoe pointed her wand towards her bag and a notebook zoomed into her lap. She opened it and jotted down something.

"Whatcha writing there?" Sirius tried grabbing the notebook.

"None of your business, Black," Zoe said a spell and the notebook and quill went back into her bag.

"Zoe Hitzig's diary. Seems like an interesting read," he jolted towards the bag and tried opening it up but it wouldn't budge.

"Keep trying, maybe this time your hair won't just be pink," Zoe kicked his calf and he sat back down next to her again.

"What are we to do? There's two whole hours left til we get to Hogwarts," groaned Peter.

Zoe stood up, "I've got an idea."

She pointed her wand at Lupin and mutter a spell. Lupin quickly got to his feet and muttered something else.

"You're going to duel?" Sirius scoffed, "Small place isn't it?"

He dodged a spell and got belly down onto the floor as Remus and Zoe dueled. They shouted spells at each other, none too serious, and clambered around the small space.

"STOP IT!" they heard a voice shout at them.

"Lily, thank god," Peter gasped as he dusted himself off of the floor.

Zoe and Remus quickly put their wands away and looked at her innocently.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lily shouted again.

"Having a bit of fun, Lil," Zoe smirked.

"Well, don't! I don't want the others to see that i'm playing favorites," she hissed, "If you're going to fool around like that keep it very VERY quiet."

She stormed away.

Remus and Zoe looked at each other and burst out laughing. Sirius shook his head and dusted himself off as well as they all took their respective seats. The rest of the trip went by slowly, each of them trying to think of good ideas as to what to do. They had changed into their robes only moments before they arrived. They could see the castle's lights through the heavy rain. Everyone had an umbrella in hand as they bustled towards the nearest carriages. Through the commotion, Peter and Lupin had been separated from the group. Sirius and Zoe found James and Lily and sat down with them.

"How was the train ride?" Lily asked.

"It was okay," Zoe sighed, "Besides being told off by my best friend."

"It was for our own good," Lily playfully kicked her.

"We spent most of it staring out the window," Sirius cleared his throat, "Nothing too interesting unless you like green grass and trees."

As soon as they reached the grounds, everyone hurried into the entrance hall. Lily didn't see Zoe and went back to the carriages to find her.

She saw her talking to nothing in particular. Lily approached her and tapped her shoulder, "Come on! The Sorting Hat will be starting his song at any minute."

"I wouldn't want to wish it on any of you, but if you could only see how amazing these thestrals are," Zoe said dreamily as she reached out her hand to touch thin air.

They set down their umbrellas as soon as they entered the entrance hall and found that the students had already gone in to sit down at the Great Hall. Remus, James, and Sirius were all sitting down together, saving two seats for the girls.

The Great Hall looked eerie with the dark sky over them and the rain pounding on the windows. A couple of girls shrieked as a lightning bolt was seen hitting a tree outside. But they all stopped chattering as a door opened. The hall was in complete silence as Professor Dumbledore entered the room. His white hair and beard looked to be a little damp. He straightened his half moon glasses and smiled at them.

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. You may be wondering as to why I'm a bit disheveled tonight," he fixed his droopy blue hat, "But there was a small hinkypunk incident in the Forbidden Forest. Which brings me to my next point, no student is allowed in the Forbidden Forest for obvious reasons."

As he continued his speech, Sirius and Remus were whispering to each other about a plan no one at the table could hear. Zoe heard bits and pieces of it, but then decided she wasn't really interested and began paying attention to Dumbledore again. He finished his speech and the sorting was beginning. There was a long line of trembling first years waiting for their turn to be sorted into their houses.

"Is that the boy Narcissa hexed?" Lupin asked as a small boy with very red ears walked towards the stool at the front of the hall.

"Yes," Lily said through gritted teeth, "Took us a while to get that cleared up. The redness should be gone by tomorrow. Poor boy, his very first day and he had to be Narcissa's victim."

The mood changed in the room as the feast began. Everyone had begun chattering and talking amongst each other again. They could see the teachers enjoying themselves as well.

Zoe and Lily were staring at the guys eat.

"You are so repulsive," Zoe mumbled at Sirius.

He tried talking with his mouth full but she just turned away and smacked him on the arm, "Gross!"

When they were finished, the guys were holding their stomachs and groaning up the stairs in the entrance hall while the girls laughed at them. Lupin stayed behind to find Peter, they hadn't seen him since the train.

"Isn't it a bit odd that he keeps disappearing?" Lily asked the group.

"I figure he's just hiding somewhere with Fenix snogging," Zoe said.

"Come to think of it, she wasn't in the Great Hall either," Lily's face turned thoughtful, "They keep going at it like this, she'll end up with a baby."

Zoe stopped in front of the fat lady and said the password, "Belladonna."

"How did you know that?" James said as he helped Lily through the entrance.

"I was paying attention and not dozing off," Zoe tripped over the doorway.

Sirius helped her up, "But you didn't pay attention to that step?"

"I'm tired!" Zoe whined, "I've forgotten what it feels like to sleep."

James yawned and stretched his arms out, "Me too. I'm going to bed."

Remus rubbed his eyes, "So am I."

Sirius was about to go with the rest but Zoe held him back, "I need to talk to you."

He nodded, "I'll be up in a bit."

Lily kissed James good night and before going into the girls dormitories looked at Zoe for an explanation. Zoe just mouthed something Lily couldn't understand so she just went away.

"What do you want, Hitzig?" Sirius yawned.

"I want to know why you've been patrolling the Evans' house," Zoe took a seat on the sofa in front of the fireplace and stared at Sirius.

"Me?" Sirius chuckled, "Have you been drinking fire whiskey or something?" 

Zoe reached into her robes and pulled out a parchment. He walked towards her and peered at it, "What is it?"

"Remember that day in Diagon Alley? When I took your things? Well," Zoe looked down at the parchment she was holding, "I didn't exactly give everything back...Padfoot."

He kneeled down in front of her and the parchment began to look familiar, "How did I not notice this missing?"

Zoe shrugged, "I don't know but I do know that a certain animagus has been around Lily's house since the party."

Sirius blushed, "You're full of surprises," he took the Maurader's Map into his own hands and sat down next to Zoe, "How did you figure out how to use it? No one can get through it besides James, Lupin, Peter and me."

"Oh please," Zoe chuckled, "Anyone could use it."

"Sometimes I'd like to go into your mind and see what sorts of knowledge you have stored in there," Sirius poked Zoe on the head.

"So why'd you do it?" Zoe asked.

Sirius sighed, "Remus and I were worried about you but since Moony isn't exactly an animagus, he couldn't really go keep an eye on you. We decided I would be the one to go."

Zoe nodded, "For a moment, I actually thought you were stalking me. Glad to know that's not the case."

She patted him on the back and walked up the stairs to the girls dormitory, "Thanks for not stalking me."

He waved at her as she left. He looked at the parchment again and smiled, "She found a flaw in this."

The next morning everyone was in the Great Hall looking over their time sheets.

Peter was looking rather confused at his while Lupin tried explaining it to him. On the other side of the table Lily and Zoe were looking focused on their own. James and Sirius had folded up their own and had taken to eating instead.

"We've got a lot of OWL level classes," Zoe muttered with her eyes wide open, "I don't think I'm going to enjoy this year very much."

Lily, on the other hand, was smiling broadly, "It's fantastic! We are definitely shoo ins for a job at the Ministry of Magic!"

Zoe put her head in her hands.

Lily and Zoe went to their first class, Advanced Transfiguration, and sat down at the front of the class while the rest of their classmates began filling the back instead of the front. As soon as everyone was in their seats, Professor McGonogall appeared as if from thin air sitting on her desk.

"Let's see how much you've practiced during vacation, shall we?" she pointed at a random male student in the middle of the class, "Which spell is used to change a living creature into an inanimate object?"

"Uhhhh," the student looked scared.

Lily and Zoe turned in their seats to take a look at who the teacher was reffering to.

Zoe immediately turned her attention to the front.

"What's wrong?" whispered Lily.

"That's Daniel," Zoe mouthed.

"Ah, Miss Hitzig, maybe you'd like to help Daniel with the question?" Professor McGonagall was smirking.

Zoe tried covering her reddening face with her hair, "Fera Verto..."

"Correct. Ten points for Gryffindor."

As the girls were in class, James and Sirius were wandering around the halls with their Maurader's map out. They had tried to get Remus and Peter to ditch as well but Peter had a class with Fenix and he wasn't going to miss a chance of being with her whereas Remus was...Remus.

"Wonder what Peeves is up to," Sirius had noticed Peeves was circling the trophy room in the map with Filch and Mrs. Norris following him.

"My theory is that Peeves is leaving trails of cat treats and Filch and the cat are just trying to eat," James chuckled.

Sirius put the map away, there was no one else around besides them.

"Why do you look so tired?" James asked, he had noticed Sirius' eyes were droopy and red.

Sirius yawned and simply stated, "Studying."

"Studying for what? You're not even in class. You didn't even plan to be in class today," James raised an eyebrow, "And I noticed that when Lupin and I slept over you disappeared somewhere?"

Sirius laughed, "So I have another girlfriend, what's the big deal?"

Remus shook his head, "Who is it this time?"

"Helen..o...of Cobblestone," Sirius stuttered. They heard a nearby portrait scoff.

"Helen of Cobblestone?" James patted Sirius on the back, "Good luck with that girl. Her name sounds like your relationship is doomed."

Sirius let out a nervous chuckle.

The bell rang and hordes of students came out of their classes. James and Sirius had wound up in front of Professor McGonagall's class. Lily had come out first while Zoe was one of the last ones. She was with Daniel, the guy she had met during James' party only a few days ago.

"Well, look who we have here," Sirius whispered to himself.

"...and that's how you do that," they heard Zoe finish explaining something to Daniel.

"Ah, I think I understand how that works. Thanks. I've got to get going to Potions so I'll see you later then?" Daniel asked as he was beginning to separate from her.

"I'll be there," Zoe nodded, "Good luck in class."

She joined James, Lily, and Sirius in a small space near the wall opposite the classroom, "I'm going to be tutoring him until he gets the hang of things."

Lily let out a small giggle.

"Oh shut up, Evans," Zoe playfully pushed her, "I'm just being nice to a friend in need."

Lily rolled her eyes, "He's probably got a different view on this."

"He's a nice guy," James added, "Talked to him a bit during my party."

Sirius' face was stern, "I'll come with you. Are you meeting in the library?"

Zoe glared at him, "I'll be fine, Black."

"Library after..." he took a piece of paper poking out of one of Zoe's books, "after your Advanced Potions? I'll be there. I'll be the one with the charming smile."

He grinned as she took back her time sheet, "You most certainly will not. He's not dangerous. And how do you even know where we're meeting?"

Lily and James were looking from one to the other as they argued. It was mostly Zoe arguing as Sirius stood in front of her smirking. It wasn't until Lily looked at the time that she pulled Zoe away from the discussion to go into their next class.

"See you later!" Sirius shouted after them.

James looked from Zoe to Sirius and back towards where Lily and Zoe were walking. He cleared his throat and put a hand on Sirius' shoulder, "You fancy her don't you?"

"Zoe? Zoe Hitzig? Are you mad? She has...weird hair and weird...stuff!" He said through laughs.

James couldn't keep a straight face, "Imagine if that were the truth!"

"Yeah, imagine that," Sirius' laugh simmered down to a weak chuckle, "It would be utter madness."


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for not updating sooner! But a lot of stuff's been going on...for one...guess who went to UNIVERSAL STUDIOOOS? **

**I'll be updating sooner nowadays that everything's calm around here.**

**:) enjoy!**

Potions class had ended and Zoe dreaded going to meet Daniel in the library.

_"He better not be there...I will kill him..." _Zoe thought as she went up the stairs towards the library. She didn't see him anywhere, _"He must have just gone back to the common room."_

There weren't many people inside. The students usually waited a month or so before stepping foot in the library and spent the beginning of the school year catching up with friends instead, tonight Zoe was doing a little bit of both.

"Oh...you..." Zoe gritted her teeth as she saw Sirius and Daniel snickering at a table near Madame Pince's desk, she seemed to be growing irritated with the two boys.

"Hey there Hitzig," Sirius said in a whisper and motioned her to sit with them.

She tried to hold back her anger a bit and sat down in front of the pair, "What brings you here, Sirius?" 

"Oh you know, studying...things," Sirius said lazily, "Daniel recognized me from the party and we were just talking about...things."

Zoe squinted at him, "Things?"

Sirius nodded innocently.

"He was telling me that you two could help me out with a bit of the homework. It's a bit overwhelming on my first day," Daniel ruffled his blonde hair.

"Two heads are better than one, right Zoe?" Sirius winked at her.

She scoffed, "You're right. Let's get started."

They spent an hour discussing Daniel's transfiguration homework before they decided to call it a night. Daniel had been put into Hufflepuff so he had gone his separate way and left Zoe alone with Sirius.

"I can't believe you're doing this!" Zoe said in an exasperated tone.

"It's for your own good, he could be a murderer!"

"You met him, does he really seem that dangerous?"

"Yeah!"

Zoe groaned, "You're insane!"

"Belladonna," Sirius said to the Fat Lady and they walked into the common room.

Lily and James were seated by a window overlooking the grounds, cuddling. Zoe and Sirius looked at each other and snuck back out.

"You need to stop being so paranoid! I was nearly killed, not YOU," Zoe poked him on the shoulder and went back into the common room.

Sirius stood there collecting his thoughts and went inside after a bit. Zoe was walking up the stairs when she noticed him coming in. She stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared. He chuckled and went to the boys dormitory. The next couple of days went by about the same way. Zoe was meeting Daniel in the library after their last class and Sirius was running out of excuses as to why he was appearing in the library every time Daniel and her were there. Zoe had even caught him spying on them from behind a bookshelf.

One day after a study session, Zoe didn't walk with Sirius back to the common room. He thought he had upset her with his most recent spying antic and let it be. But when she didn't come back after an hour, he went to go look for her. He took out the Maurader's map and tried to be as sneaky as possible since it was past curfew, nothing new for him though. He knew the school like the back of his hand and then some. He saw Filch roaming around the Great Hall, surely cleaning up the mess Peeves had made during dinner. Peeves had started a one sided food fight with the Ravenclaw table.

He finally spotted her on the seventh floor.

"What is she doing there...?" Sirius whispered aloud and went up another flight of stairs towards where the map said she was.

He looked from the map to a wall in front of him but she wasn't there. He looked around and saw nothing, "What the bloody..."

The sound of someone singing was coming from the other side of the wall. He pressed his ear next to it but didn't hear anything else. Sirius was beginning to think he was going crazy. He took out the map once more and saw Zoe's name float towards him, he stepped back and gasped as she appeared from a door that wasn't there a moment before.

They both screamed.

"What are you doing here?" Zoe said as she held her chest.

"What are YOU doing here?" Sirius shot back at her.

"Nothing," they said at the same time.

"Who's there?" A voice asked from nearby.

Sirius looked down at the map and saw that Mrs. Norris and Filch had made their way up from the Great Hall and were walking fast towards them, "Hurry!"

He grabbed Zoe by the hand and ran back down to the Gryffindor Common room. The Fat Lady wasn't too happy about being woken up so late and hesitantly opened for them. They collapsed on the sofa in front of the fireplace.

"That was a close one!" Zoe panted.

Sirius ran his hand through his long black hair, "What were you doing up there?"

Zoe sighed and smiled mischievously at him, "Promise not to tell?"

Sirius pretended to zip his mouth shut.

"Okay...well...hm...I think it's best if I just show you. How's tomorrow for you?"

"Oh come on!" Sirius playfully shook her.

"I've been dying to tell someone about it but never thought I should," she slowly got up, "Good night."

It was Saturday morning and mostly everyone had gone downstairs to eat breakfast. Zoe however had stayed behind with Sirius. She was waiting for James, Lily, and Peter to leave the common room so she could take Sirius to the seventh floor.

"It's okay, we need to finish some stuff but we'll be downstairs soon enough," Sirius called after the group.

"I'll try and save you some pumpkin juice!" Lily said as the door closed.

"Okay let's just wait a few minutes while they get downstairs," Zoe sat down at a chair and looked at the door.

"Is this a plan to assassinate me?" Sirius raised an eyebrow and leaned next to the door.

"If I wanted to kill you, I'd have done it by now," she leaned back fully and laughed to herself.

A couple minutes passed in silence and Zoe rose from her seat.

"Okay, let's go. Get your map thingy out so we can avoid trouble," she opened the door and started going up the stairs to the 7th floor.

Mostly everyone was eating breakfast so they only had a few run ins with a couple of people they knew. Sirius looked curiously at the wall he had been facing the previous night, where Zoe had appeared out of a disappearing door, She paced back and forth a couple of times looking very hard at the wall.

"It looks like your brain is about to cave in," Sirius chuckled and put away the Maurader's map.

She didn't respond, but she did stop in her tracks and a door began appearing in front of them.

"Hurry," she opened the door and waited for Sirius to get in before closing it, "ta-da!"

Sirius looked around and saw a guitar stand in the middle of the well decorated room.

"What is this?" he walked around and saw a piano, guitar, violin, and books upon books about music and musicians.

"One of the house elves in the kitchen told me about this place," she was smiling broadly as she looked around, "She said that all I had to do was think about what I wanted the room to appear as and pace back and forth three times in front of the wall. All I've ever really wanted was to play music so I basically created this."

Sirius was at a loss for words, he had never seen anything like it.

"I come here every chance I get to unwind. I don't think anyone knows about it," Zoe chuckled.

"Why'd you choose me?" Sirius stared at her.

She blushed a little bit, "You look like the kinda guy that can appreciate this kind of place. And also how else would I have been able to explain my shocking appearance out of thin air?"

"I was actually beginning to think you found a way to apparate in the school."

Zoe shook her head, "You can't."

"I know but a genius like yourself would have been able to find a way," Sirius smiled.

Zoe looked down at her watch, "Time for first period so off to class we go."

"I think I'll stay," Sirius was about to sit down when the sofa suddenly disappeared and he fell on his rear end.

Zoe smirked, "Let's GO!"

Sirius dropped off Zoe at her class and headed to his right after. He didn't pay much attention but James was kind enough to write down notes for the both of them. Afterwards, they ran into Lily and Zoe once more.

"Where did you two run off this morning? We missed you at breakfast," Lily asked.

"We went to the library to find a book on...dragons for...Sirius' class," Zoe kept glancing at Sirius to get him to help her but he just looked away every time, smiling at her failed attempt at lying.

"Daniel was asking about you, Zoe," Lily nudged her.

She turned bright pink, "Well, we still have that study session today so I'm sure he'll tell me why there."

Sirius hushed them all and pointed towards a chubby man and woman kissing in the hall, they recognized them right away.

"So Peter wasn't lying after all," James waved his arms over his head, "HEY PETER!"

The girl he was kissing looked at James with a horrified look on her face, Peter turned red. Fenix took him by the arm and dragged him away out of view.

As soon as classes ended, Zoe waited at the library for Daniel. She sat in silence until someone approached her.

"Do you have a minute?" she recognized the voice to be Snape's.

Zoe hesitated, "Sure."

"Have you talked to Dumbledore at all?" his hair was greasier than usual.

"I...haven't had the chance to," she didn't look at him as she spoke, "I'll talk to him soon though."

He sneered, "You better make it as soon as possible, Zoe. You know this is a time sensitive thing."

"I know," she cleared her throat, "I'll contact you as soon as I do. Can you please leave? I'm expecting someone."

He didn't say goodbye, he just simply walked away.

Daniel appeared as soon as Severus was out the door, with a big grin on his face.

"I have good news," he set his bag down, "I was looking for you this morning but you weren't at breakfast."

Zoe smiled, "Caught up with some homework. So what's the good news?"

Daniel reached into his bag and pulled out a paper.

"You aced the quiz! Told you studying would pay off," Zoe looked over the paper and patted him on the back.

"And to celebrate this miraculous achievement, I'd like to invite you to come with me to Hogsmeade next week."

Zoe grinned, "Sure!"

"It's a date," Daniel blurted out, "Uhh...if you wanna call it that...I mean it's not a date...umm."

The rest of the study session went on awkwardly, not in a bad way.

Lily laughed when Zoe told her about Daniel's date idea, "Aw, he's a cutie, I'll give you that. So when is it?"

"Next Hogsmeade visit," Zoe couldn't help but smile broadly. 

"Who's going to Hogsmeade?" Lupin asked as he stepped into the common room with Sirius and James trailing after him.

"Zoe and..." Lily was about to say before Zoe covered her mouth with her hand.

"No one, no one's going here," she gave a nervous chuckle and took her hand back from Lily's mouth.

"Where were you all?" Lily got up and kissed James on the cheek.

Lupin looked at James and then at Sirius, "Nowhere."

Zoe narrowed her eyes at Lupin, "Are you sure? Cause it looks to me like you were somewhere."

"How so?" James fidgeted with his robe, trying to be inconspicuous.

"There are tree leaves on all of your heads," Zoe stood and took a leaf out of James' hair.

Remus checked his own hair, "We were just...doing our homework?" 

Sirius nodded, "Yeah, we got bored of being in here so we did our homework outside."

Lily leered at James, "Where were you?"

"Uh fine," James caved.

Remus and Sirius groaned.

"We were trying to practice a spell on the Whomping Willow," James shrugged, "That's all."

Lily's eyes grew big, "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

James chuckled, "Oh Lily, I'm fine though. It was just a bit of practice for a test."

Lily seemed to calm down at the mention of a test, "It better have been, James."

Zoe slumped back into her chair and shook her head. She knew James was lying but funnily enough Lily didn't, even though she spent most of her time with him. Sirius lightly kicked her chair and motioned to her to go out of the common room with him. They excused themselves and left.

"What were you guys actualy doing out there?" Zoe squinted at Sirius.

"That's what I was going to tell you. We were finishing up our maintenance to go into the Shrieking Shack. Last time Remus and James did a real number on the tunnel when Remus tried to go back into the school in werewolf form. Luckily, we stopped him in time."

Zoe nodded, "And what else?"

"We might have gone into the Forbidden Forest. And also may have found an amazing new place for hanging out," Sirius winked at her.

"I, for one, do not want to be attacked by centaurs. Also, I already have my own spot," Zoe smiled.

Lupin fumbled out of the common room, "Lily would like to speak with you, Zoe. She went to the dormitory."

Zoe went back inside to meet with Lily.

"So, how'd it go?" Lupin asked.

"She doesn't hate me, but I didn't get a chance to say what I needed to say thanks to you," Sirius punched Lupin's arm.

Lupin sighed, "Ah well, there's plenty of more chances."

They walked back inside only to be pushed out of the way by an angry Zoe. The door slammed behind her. Lily ran down to catch up to her.

"What's going on?" Lupin asked a perplexed looking James.

"I don't know," James answered.

All three of them waited for the girls' return well past midnight. Lily was the first to walk in, looking exhausted, and Zoe came in a couple of minutes later.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sirius whispered to her.

Zoe shook her head no, "I'll be going to bed. Good night."

Lily stayed behind.

"What was that all about?" James asked.

"Uh...hmm...she received a letter from her mother...letting her know that she'd be accepted back if she joined them...in...you know...they're planning on doing something big." Lily looked slightly nervous as she finished.

:


	8. Chapter 8

_**So not long after last chapter, my laptop's charger died. I kept writing...not long after that...my laptop's battery died! Not long after THAT, I was unemployed...boy i had my streak of bad luck. But NOW...I haz new charger & battery & job! Things are lookin up, and I now PROMISE to update sooner...waaaaay sooner. Sorry for the looong wait. Hope you enjoy!**_

It was the day of the Hogsmeade visit, and Zoe had not uttered a word of that night's happenings to anyone but Lily. No one wanted to pry, but Sirius insisted on pestering her for answers.

"Where are you going?" Sirius walked at a fast pace trying to catch up with Zoe.

"I already told you I was going to Hogsmeade!" Zoe was now looking very agitated.

The past few days she wasn't as playful with him as she used to be. He seemed to anger her too easily with the smallest of things. She had even thrown a book at him when he had simply asked for a bit of ink.

She stopped dead in her tracks and turned to face him, causing him to lose his balance a little, "Listen, I am going to Hogsmeade with Daniel. I do not wish to see you poking your hairy little head around every corner or else I will be forced to shove my wand so far up your nose, you'll be sneezing out splinters for the rest of your life. Understand?"

Sirius didn't know if it was the comment about his head or the splinter sneezes that caused him to do it, but once let out the first laugh, he regretted it.

He slowly opened his eyes and was surprised to see James and Lupin staring down at him.

"What the bloody hell happened?" James said as he helped Sirius up to his feet.

Sirius tried to explain but there was a tingling sensation lingering on the center of his face, "I have absolutely no idea, mate."

Lupin was covering his mouth with his hand, surely trying to do what Sirius hadn't been able to finish earlier.

"How long was I out for?" Sirius lightly touched his nose and felt a small jolt of pain.

Remus started chuckling a little bit, "All we saw was a small fist go towards your face. You must've angered Zoe pretty good to have received such a hit."

"Let's get a move on. Lily's probably already waiting for us at Honeyduke's," James stood in front of Sirius, making sure he wouldn't fall forwards.

"I'm fine," Sirius shook his head, "Who keeps moving the floor?"

At that, Remus couldn't contain his laughter anymore. As they made their way to Hogsmeade, Remus would look at him every once in a while and have a small fit of laughter.

Just as James had said, Lily was already waiting for them at the entrance of Honeyduke's.

"What happened to you?" Lily looked at Sirius' already bruising nose.

"Your friend gave me an early Christmas present," Sirius mumbled.

Lily looked at James and back at Sirius, "She's been having a bad week, Sirius. You should give her some space."

Sirius nodded and they walked into the shop.

A couple of hours of shopping and they were done for the day. As they strode back into the school, they spotted a screaming Narcissa running up the stairs , holding her head tight.

"What's got into her?" Sirius asked.

As they were about to enter the Great Hall, Zoe made her presence known with a new head of hair in a bright red shade.

Lily looked from Zoe to the stairs they had seen Narcissa run up, "Zoe?"

Zoe cleared her throat and grinned, "Hey there guys."

"ZOE HITZIG!" Professor McGonagall swooped from her office down to where they all stood.

"Yes, professor?" Zoe's grin disappeared quickly.

McGonagall motioned for the group to leave and they did, but they hid behind the Great Hall's doors and listened in.

"Narcissa has mentioned that someone dropped some Drooble's Best Blowing Gum onto her head. Do you know anything about this?"

They heard Zoe clear her throat again, "No, ma'am. I was talking to my friend David right outside when I heard Narcissa scream about something. Didn't realize she had gum stuck in her hair. Happens to the best of us, don't it?"

Professor McGonagall fell silent for a moment, "If I find out you had something to do with this, Hitzig, I'll be taking 50 points from your house."

They heard her footsteps disappear onto the outside grounds.

Lily walked up to where Zoe stood, "DID you have something to do with the gum debacle?"

Zoe smiled and shrugged, "Not going to say. Well, I have an important meeting to get to. See you all later."

As she walked away, Lupin, James, and Sirius burst out laughing.

"It's about bloody time someone did something to that hag," James laughed.

Lily shook her head, "She's going to get Zoe back. I can feel it."

"At least she looks happier. David sure cheered her up," Lupin added.

They gathered at the Gryffindor table and looked over their purchases when David came into the dining hall. He looked over at their table and waved at them.

Lily waved back, "He seems happy too. Wonder what happened at Hogsmeade."

After an hour of chattering, Lily and James departed to the library and Lupin went to see where Peter was, leaving Sirius alone to wander the halls. He was surprised to see Zoe come out of Dumbledore's office.

"They catch you?" Sirius asked her as she walked away from the door leading into the office.

She walked past him in a daze. He lightly grabbed her by the shoulder, "You all right? You seem a little...off?"

She shook her head, "Oh, hey Sirius. Um, I'm all right. Listen, do you by any chance know how to contact...oh...you know what? Forget I mentioned anything..."

She smiled and walked down the stairs. As soon as she was out of sight, Dumbledore also came out of his office, humming a catchy tune.

"Professor? Is Zoe okay?" Sirius approached him.

Dumbledore smiled and took off his glasses to clean them, "She will be in due time. Such pressure should never be bestowed upon someone as young as her. But alas, nothing can be done."

Sirius furrowed his brow, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Dumbledore put his glasses back on and chuckled, "Oh my, seems to me like I've said too much already. You may want to inquire more with her, Sirius. She seems to be in need of a friend at the moment. And it seems to be as if you got here in the nick of time."

He continued his humming again as he walked away.

"Why is everything a riddle with him..." Sirius said under his breath and went to find Zoe.

It didn't take him long to find her, she had sat down on one of the stairwells.

"You all right? We're all pretty worried about you," Sirius sat down one stair above hers.

Zoe seemed to ignore him, she was concentrating very hard on a piece of lint on her shoe, "Hmm? Oh, yeah I'm fine...actually...can we go to the Room of Requirement?"

They walked through the halls in complete silence. As soon as they entered the Room of Requirement, Zoe let out a scream of frustration, causing Sirius to reach for his wand.

She took a deep breath and sighed, "What I'm about to tell you, you are to never repeat it to anyone else. Promise?"

She stuck her pinky out at him and he linked his own to it, "Promise."

"For the next couple of weeks, I...I..." Zoe took another deep breath, "I will not be myself. There is something I have to do that requires me to be at my worst. I apologize in advance for anything I might say or do to any of you. I've told Lily this already, but not the whole truth."

Sirius frowned at her, "Why in bloody hell are you doing this?"

"My family is planning something big with the rest of the Death Eaters. I've been advised to follow along in hopes of becoming one...one of...them," she finished the sentence with a look of dread.

Sirius unhooked his pinky from hers, "What? You're joining the damned Death Eaters?"

"It's not my choice!" She choked up, "Well it is...but I'm doing what's best for everyone!"

"How is having another Death Eater around best for ANYONE? You've lost your damn mind, Zoe! Who told you to do this?" Sirius shouted at her.

"Dumbledore," she said in almost a whisper, "He...he..he said that it's the only way at the moment to be able to infiltrate them. It might be the only chance we've got to end them. I've got to do this."

Sirius slumped down the wall behind them, "What if that's their plan? What if they already know that someone really isn't a part of them?"

Zoe nodded and slumped down next to him, "We went over that too. It's a risk we're willing to take. I'm not really going to be put in real danger. My parents are going to be watching over me, or so they say. I'm not really too sure about anything right now. All I know is that in order for me to have any chance of joining them, I have to cut ties with everyone near and dear to me."

Sirius was in a state of shock and didn't know how to respond.

"I shouldn't have burdened you with all this," Zoe looked as if she was holding back tears.

"It's fine," Sirius took her hand in his, "Is this why you gummed Narcissa's head?"

Zoe chuckled, "No, that was just for fun."

They each looked down at their interlocking hands but didn't say anything for a long while.

"You should know that no matter what, the Marauders and Lily will always be here for you," Sirius said softly.

"I know," Zoe chuckled, "Promise me one more thing..."

"What?"

"If it comes to a point where we have to fight, don't hold back," Zoe cleared her throat.

Sirius nodded, "What should I say to the rest of the group?"

"Tell them I've lost my mind, because it sure feels that way," Zoe laughed nervously.

Sirius looked at her and then back at their hands, he was about to say something when there was a loud bang behind them.

Zoe quickly let go and stood up, "What is that?"

A peephole appeared on the wall.

Sirius looked through it and saw Peeves throwing trophies at it. Someone was screaming at him to stop, surely they were right below the peephole trying to run away.

Peeves cackled and flew after them. Sirius took out the Marauder's map and checked to see if Peeves had left. It seemed to be Filch who had been trying to get away from him, he was still running away.

Zoe laughed, "It's time to go back. Oh before I forget, the punch earlier was also just for fun."

"It didn't feel very funny to my face," Sirius playfully shoved her out the door.


End file.
